


The Journal of a Very Married Talon Tantiss

by Talon88



Series: The Tantiss Family [5]
Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-20 17:46:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 63,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17626793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talon88/pseuds/Talon88
Summary: This is a continuation of the adventures of my original character, Talon Tantiss.  Ben Skywalker is featured heavily throughout the story.  It tells the story of Talon and Ben working as roving Jedi.  They are married to the Karrde sisters, Zylie and Valla. This is a friendship type of fanfic.





	1. Chapter 1

**_ENTRY 1_ **

**_45.2 ABY- Coruscant_ **

I have kept a journal of my adventures since 32 ABY when I was just an eighteen-year-old Jedi Apprentice. Now I am thirty-one years of age, an experienced Jedi Knight, newly married and father to a boy named Marcus conceived during a short-lived previous relationship.

Anybody reading this journal in the future should probably read my diary from my days as a single man if you want the entire backstory of my life, but just in case that journal is ever destroyed or lost I will give any readers a quick review of my overly complex life so far.

My name is Talon Tantiss. I am the youngest son of retired Jedi Master Mark Tantiss and Kira Starkos Tantiss. I have a brother named Jaden who is currently married to Jysella Horn Tantiss and have a daughter named Jessa. They are Jedi Healers.

I am biologically related to the Skywalker and Solo family and through marriage I am linked to the Karrde Family. How we are all related is a key part to my story.

My father was a clone found deep within Emperor Palpatine's secret mountain facility on the planet Wayland. Around 8 or 9 ABY the crazy Jedi Joruus C'baoth had acquired Jedi Master Luke Skywalker DNA by way of his severed hand he lost on Bespin (how C'baoth got Master Skywalker's hand is still a mystery to me. Did a Bespin janitor sweep it up and decide to keep it? How did C'baoth get it? Was it on sale on the Holonet? _'For sale: Jedi lightsaber—comes with poseable Jedi hand!'_ Who knows?).

Anyway, crazy C'baoth took Skywalker's DNA and made two clones. One was a normal copy of Luke Skywalker, the other had its DNA manipulated to make him into a Imperial Sentinel—which is a genetically altered, three meter tall, muscular giant created to be a brain dead extension of C'baoth's will.

Mara Jade killed the regular sized clone but the extra large clone was saved before his intended chemical lobotomization and taken to Coruscant to be trained as a Jedi. That second clone is my father.

Dad has spent all of his life trying to hide the fact that he was Uncle Luke's genetic copy. He dyed his hair red and his irises green. Of course, his disguise was helped along by his enormous size. Instead he tells people he is Mara Jade's long lost brother. Because of this back-story I am officially known as the cousin to the large Skywalker family (oldest son Ben, twins Jak and Owen and daughter Hanna) and also a non-blood relative to the Solo children (twins Jaina and Jacen and younger brother Anakin). Of course I am a blood relative to both families because dad is Luke's clone and is considered the same as an identical twin brother…although they no longer look alike.

My dad never grew to the standard height of an Imperial Sentinel. He is 2.15 meters tall and weighs 125 kilograms—far less than the three-meter and the two hundred kilo frame of Imperial Sentinels of the past.

I was born, raised and trained at the temple along with all my cousins. As adults, my cousin Ben and I started dating the two daughters of Talon Karrde and his wife Zara Maru Karrde. I ended up marrying Zylie Karrde and Ben married Valla Karrde.

Which brings me to my current wedded status. We all got married in a joint ceremony and after going off on our separate honeymoons with our gorgeous brides Ben and I are finally back on Coruscant with our wives. While the ladies are off shopping, Ben and I have spent the last few hours checking out our impressive wedding gift from the Skywalker, Tantiss and Karrde families—a Wayfarer-class medium transport. It is a Freighter that not only has a massive cargo space, but a hanger bay module where Ben and I can store our StealthX fighters. Our parents purchased the ship so Zylie and Valla could continue working in the family trader business, but at the same time spend more time with their totally whipped husbands. Ha!

Zylie and Valla grew up on their father's ship _Wild Karrde_ , so this is no big deal to them _._ This is going to be a unique experience for Ben and me. Luckily, Ben and I have been roommates at the Temple for the last few years, so we know we can get along. Now we need to find out if we can live on a freighter (albeit a large freighter) with our wives for the next…I don't know…forever. Till death do us part was what we all vowed. Hopefully we won't all get cabin fever and make that vow come to fruition prematurely.

I'll write more in this journal later. I need to get something to eat.

.

.

**_Entry 2_ **

Our new ship came with two droids. I don't like droids. My father never liked droids either. I don't know why we have this particular aversion. I definitely know it is not genetic since my Uncle Luke is always around his astromech droid, R2-D2. My dad used to joke that if Luke stopped too abruptly Artoo Detoo would bump into his ass. I don't know if it's actually that bad, but I do see the two together a lot. Artoo is an extremely vocal and spunky droid that is just a little less annoying to me than my Aunt Leia's protocol droid, See Threepio. Ben says the little astromech is so perceptive and sensitive to his father's emotions that he sometimes wonders if the lack of memory wipes in the last four decades has made the little Artoo unit almost…sentient. That thought creeps me out. A sentient droid is not something I want to consider. It is like one of those horror holos where the droids become self-aware and rise up to kill all biological sentient life.

Unfortunately the ship is too large to run without either a pilot droid or a full six-man crew. I really don't want to live with more people, so I guess I will tolerate a droid.

Ben and I went to the flight deck to check out our new pilotmech. As we entered the ship's bridge, the droid rose from the pilot seat, made a slight bow and then said in a very deep, masculine voice. "Greetings Master Skywalker, Master Tantiss. I am I-Dee-Ten-Tee hybrid pilot/navigation/protocol droid at your service."

I have seen pilot droids before, but this droid was an unfamiliar model. It had the standard bipedal form like a C3PO unit, but the face didn't mimic human features. The head instead looked a little like a metallic silver Clone Trooper helmet, except instead of eye slits there was a 360-degree sensor around the crown of its metal skull.

Ben greeted the droid like he would a living person. I just laughed in the droid's face (or where its face would have been). "Who named you? Is that a factory designation?" I asked, fairly certain it wasn't.

The droid cocked its head to the side mimicking the human gesture of surprise. "Why no Master Tantiss. I am a highly unique droid specifically designed for this ship and the needs of the crew. As for my name, I believe your father gave me my nomenclature designation."

I smirked and turned away. "Figures."

My dad and I are both Void Jumper qualified and we've worked extensively as Jedi Assets in jump trooper units. Experienced soldiers like to harass young recruits by telling them to go to the supply office and pick up some I-D-Ten-T requisition forms. Of course when they get to the supply room the supply sergeant would tell him he's busy and ask the recruit to write down the form number for him. The soldier would write down ID10T and realize he was just pranked. ID10T…or IDIOT!

"Why don't I call you Ten-Tee for short," I said to the droid.

"That would be more than acceptable Master Tantiss."

As we left the flight deck Ben gave me a curious look. I smirked at my redheaded cousin. "I'll tell you later. Let's check out the medical droid."

We went down the corridor to the small medical bay. There was a 2-1B surgical droid. Like the pilot droid it was bipedal with masculine programing and an overly cheerful disposition. We didn't get a chance to examine the medical facility extensively because our wives finally returned to the ship…and I got a surprise more unpleasant than learning I would have to live with two droids. Zylie must have stopped by her father's ship docked nearby because she returned with her pet vornskr, _Princess_.

I never once considered that she would take her vicious pet from her father's ship and bring it onto ours. As they entered the freighter the animal's eyes locked onto mine. I could sense through the Force the vornskr's intense dislike for me right before the beast broke out in trot, barreling down the corridor in my direction. I have no idea why that vornskr hates me. She has yet to take a bite out of me, but I know she is just looking for an excuse.

" _Princess_ heel!" Zylie yelled out to her pet. The coarse-haired vornskr skidded to a halt about a meter from me while raising her head and exposing very large and sharp teeth. I moved to walk around the animal, but that prompted a deep rumbling growl from the vornskr.

I sighed deeply as I heard Ben chuckle from behind me. He bent down on a knee and called the animal over to him. The large beast gave me a warning look as it moved around me to Ben and allowed my cousin to scratch behind her ears.

"You are such a good girl!" Ben said in a singsong voice as the canine's back paw started to judder up and down in a contented involuntary response to having her fur stroked. Eventually the animal rubbed her head against Ben's chest before it delivered a wet slobbery lick to his face.

I shuddered. There was no way I was going to let a vornskr get that close to my face or any other parts of my body that were not easily replaceable by cybernetics.

"I don't know why she likes you," I said to Ben.

Ben gave me a toothy grin. "Because I'm not scared of her," he said matter-of-factly.

I gave a dismissive snort as I watched my cousin fawning over the vornskr. "I'm not scared of _Princess_." As if by cue, the animal turned and snarled at me. I instinctively jumped back about a meter eliciting laughter from the group. "Okay, maybe I am a little skittish around her." I turned back to Zylie. "Are you seriously going to bring her onboard?"

Zylie gave me that pouty face she always pulls on me to make me give in to her demands…but not this time.

"Talon, I've had Princess half of my life…thirteen years."

I shook my head. "I don't want that animal on board."

Zylie looked over to Valla. " _Princess_ is our pet. She belongs to Valla as much as me. You're not going to deprive both of us of our childhood pet, are you?"

Valla gave me an identical pleading look with pouting lips and sad hazel eyes. I heard Ben laugh softly behind me. "You're beat Talon." He walked over to his wife, putting an arm around her and pulling her close so he could kiss her on the cheek. He looked back to me and grinned. "We've never won an argument with these two, why do you think you're going to start now?"

"Well, I'm going to start now," I protested. "I'm a pittin person, not a canine person."

Zylie came over to me laying her delicate hands across my chest and gazing up with a vivacious smile. "Why don't we go to our cabin and discuss this _privately_."

I gave a frustrated groan. I knew as soon as we were in our quarters she would exercise the full power of her feminine wiles on me. She grabbed the sleeve of my tunic and started pulling me toward our cabin.

"Don't do it Talon," Ben laughed at my plight. "Once you step through that door you'll promise her anything. You'll be cleaning up vornskr excrement for the foreseeable future."

Ben's wife Valla playfully slapped his shoulder. "Whose side are you on anyway?"

Ben turned to his wife and grinned. "Why yours, honey." He gave her a wink. "Let's lock up the ship and maybe we can have a long, private discussion in our cabin also."

I heard Valla giggle. "Why Jedi Skywalker, I would love to…discuss things privately."

As Zylie and I disappeared into our cabin I knew this was not an dispute I was going to win. Oh well. I do enjoy Zylie's persuasive arguments. Ha!

Maybe I can program ID-10-T to pick up vornskr poodoo. It was worth a try.

 

**.**

**.**

**_Entry 3_ **

As expected, I crumbled under Zylie's highly persuasive negotiation style. Oh well, I made her work for it. She spent hours persuading me. Ha!

We ended up installing an extra large kennel in the cargo room and an indoor animal waste system, which consisted of a large patch of synthetic grass over a drainage grid that led to a drip pan. Since nobody really wanted to change the drip pan I ended up getting a plumber to run a waste line from the bottom of the pan to the ship's 'fresher drainline. We had a valve installed that would trigger at set intervals flushing the liquid waste into the drainpipe. The only thing that had to be done by hand (or by a hand wrapped in a plastobag) was to manually remove the feces and throw the bag into the ship's garbage compactor and then spray the grass with an anti-odor, bacteria eliminating enzyme. Zylie promised me that was one job I would never have to do. She probably could have convinced me to perform that particular nauseating duty if she wanted to, but I guess she didn't want to press her luck.

With that out of the way, all that was left was the task of naming our ship. That was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

These are the names we looked at but rejected:

  1. Deep Ship (my suggestion)  
2\. Ship for Brains (also mine)  
3\. Karrde's Kids (Ben's suggestion)  
4\. Fastidiots (Zylie explained that this was a play on the word fastidious. I must have looked confused because Ben informed me that fastidious was another word for pedantic. Seeing my blank face, Valla gave me the definition of pedantic. Ben then asked me if I slept through all my classes in Basic)  
5\. Empty Space (Zylie's suggestion…and for some reason she was looking at me when she proposed that name)  
6\. Sloshed Spacer (mine)  
7\. Sunava Beach (also mine)  
8\. The Spayed Vornskr (Definitely mine. I was told that _wasn't_ funny…but it is.)  
9\. Just Flying Around (Valla's)  
10\. Major Altitude (Ben's)  
11\. Dames and Knights (Mine)  
12\. Ships-N-Giggles (Zylie)  
13\. Wedded Bliss (Ben got an enthusiastic kiss from his wife for this suggestion)  
14\. Suck My Wake (This resulted in a slap to my head from my wife)  
15\. Star Wake (Ben)  
16\. Wide Load (Mine)  
17\. Skyrunner (Ben)  
18\. Skywalker (Of course, Ben)  
19\. Red Knight (Ben)  
20\. Hot Knights (Mine. I really liked this one)  
21\. Sexy Knights (I liked this one better)  
22\. Hot-N-Sexy Knights (This was the best of my suggestions)  
23\. Neutered Knights (Zylie's suggestion after, according to her, I made one too many cretinous suggestions…and by cretinous I assume she meant AWESOME!)



Finally, our wives told us to forget about having a ship designation with any reference to Jedi Knights or the Skywalker name. For professional reasons, the ship was registered under the Karrde Corporation and it wouldn't be a good business practice to let people know Jedi Knights were aboard. Although their trade profession was entirely legal, businessmen and women were wary about dealing with Force-users, especially while making a business deal.

I suggested the ship be named after the ladies aboard. So we looked at _VallaZylie_ or the _ZylieValla_. Not liking the sound of those proposals, the ladies settled on _Vazy_ —from the first two letters of Valla and Zylie. It was a short name, but I liked it.

"So it's settled," I said. "We'll call the ship _Vazy_ after the lovely women on board." I went to get up from the dining table when I heard a low rumbling growl from under the kitchen tabletop followed by the clicking of sharp claws on the durasteel deck. Zylie's vornskr crawled out from where she was hiding and laid her chin on the table like she was going to beg for food scraps.

"Oh, she's upset that you forgot one female," Zylie said as she scratched behind the animal's ears.

"The _Vazy Princess_ ," Valla shouted out. "That sounds so much better."

Both ladies enthusiastically agreed. I wasn't thrilled about having the word _Princess_ in the name of my ship…especially since it is the name of my evil nemesis. Ben liked it though, so I agreed in order to keep the peace.

I still think _Hot-N-Sexy Knights_ would have been a much better name.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Entry 4_ **

Ben and I officially moved out of the bachelor quarters at the Temple. Luckily neither of us had a lot of personal items and our gear fit nicely in the ship's cabins. The ladies were another story.

Exactly how many shoes does a woman need? Apparently, something upwards of twenty when it comes to Zylie. Then there are dresses, tunics, trousers, frilly undergarments, waistcoats, three-fourth length coats and long coats. I am looking into my cabin's closet and I have about one-tenth of the closet area. My Jedi robes and civilian clothing are crammed tightly against Zylie's huge wardrobe. I am thinking Ben and I may have to take some of the storage space from the cargo room and make a giant walk-in closet for the ladies…or for us guys. At least the two staterooms are fairly large, each with a double bed, dresser and desk with a computer and HoloNet terminal.

We are preparing to go on a shipping run for Karrde's organization. This meant we had to make sure we had all our supplies, maintenance tools and spare parts for our StealthX fighters and our astromech droids (damn I forgot about those guys. I will be living with FOUR droids).

I went to the pet store and bought huge bags of carnivore chow for _Princess_. I am hoping two fifty-kilo bags will be enough. I am not looking forward to seeing how much poodoo a hundred kilos of food will generate. Luckily picking up vornskr crap is not in my job description.

Ben and I met with the Grand Master who briefed us on our responsibilities as "roving Jedi". We had to be self-sufficient when it came to maintenance and on-call at all times to react to Jedi missions in the areas where we were travelling. It looks like I will help Ben in any Jedi Sentinel missions and he will be back me up on Jedi Guardian operations.

.

.

**_Entry 5_ **

Well, we are off on our first shipping run. Valla and the pilot droid ID10T powered up the large freighter and lifted off smoothly. Zylie and Valla have both piloted their father's ship _'Wild Karrde'_ before, so this is not much different. Eventually Ben and I will have to become accustomed to the controls. We are pilots, but our experience is mostly confined to small fighters. I don't think I'd have a problem flying this colossal ship, but docking it is another matter. I would imagine parallel parking a hover train would be easier that putting this ship into a small docking space. Fortunately, the pilot droid would probably prevent me from crashing into anything.

While in flight we developed a schedule for food prep and cleaning. We would rotate as to who cooks the meals, cleans and does the laundry. I am sure everything will work out fine.

.

.

**_Entry 6_ **

I just discovered that the only thing Zylie knows how to cook is ' _burnt_ '. Burnt steak, burnt cookies, and burnt flat cakes. The only food she hasn't burnt is the cereal, but I am sure if she could find a way to scorch a cold meal, she would. It turns out that her mother did almost all the cooking for the _Wild Karrde_ crew.

.

.

**_Entry 7_ **

Ben must have learned all of his culinary skills from his mother. When he had cooking duty we were given heated up ration bars and instant meals.

.

.

**_Entry 8_ **

Valla somehow burnt my cereal.

.

.

**_Entry 9_ **

Surprise, surprise, the son of a world famous chef knows how to cook. My mother would show me how to make all types of great dishes when I was a boy. Therefore I got the chance to show off my culinary skills. For breakfast we had gartro egg omelets with Tatooine crepes. For lunch we feasted on Mongo Beefhead patty sliders with a triple cheese topping. Dinner consisted of Creamed Rishi corned soup and Shawda Clubb sandwiches. For dessert I made up some Warra nut cookies.

.

.

**_Entry 10_ **

Ben, Zylie and Valla took a vote and decided I should be the ship's head cook. I told them that unless they wanted vornskr burgers on the menu they should rethink that vote.

.

.

**_Entry 11_ **

There was a second vote and it was decided that a food synthesizer should be purchased for the ship as soon as possible. Until then I guess I'll be cooking…otherwise I think I'll starve.

.

.

**_Entry 12_ **

In the past week I realized living onboard a ship is a lot more difficult than expected. Although Ben and I roomed together for years without conflict and Zylie and I spent long blissful weekends together prior to our marriage…living with another couple is _completely_ different. The main complication is Valla. Now don't get me wrong. Valla is a wonderful woman. She is easy to get along with and I really like her. The problem is…she's not my wife…so walking around in my underwear is now frowned upon. I could do it as a bachelor around my roommate or my girlfriend, but doing it around Valla is not an option.

It's not that I always walk around semi-nude, but at night I sleep in my boxer-briefs. So now when I wander out of my cabin in the middle of the sleep cycle to use the 'fresher I have to ensure I'm decent. Recently I've been pulling my jedi cloak on when I go to the 'fresher. Zylie said when I do that I look like a perverted Jedi Flasher. That made me chuckle.

Cohabitating with women also takes some getting used to…because the most inoculous things appear to irritate them.

The number one irritant is me or Ben leaving the toilet seat up. Zylie told me I should put the toilet seat down after I use the 'fresher or else it might cause her to fall into the toilet. I pointed out to her that men sit down on the toilet also and, as far as I know, no male has ever accidentally fallen into a toilet.

Well, she didn't appreciate the logic of that argument. Therefore, I promised to put the seat down after I use the latrine, but after forgetting to do this about a trillion times (according to her) I decided to leave the seat down permanantly. Which brought us to problem number two…my aim. Now she's telling me to make sure I put the seat up when I have to take a leak beause my aim isn't perfect. I told her that she is more than welcome to help me zero my weapon. Ha! She was not amused...so I am back to lifting the seat and forgetting to put it down. And it is not just Zylie getting irritate with me. Valla also is vocal about this situation. I suggested that we have a second 'fresher installed-one for the men and one for the ladies. That recommendation was shot down because supposedly it would be far too expensive.

Which brings me to problem number three.-changing the roll of toilet paper. I obviously can't figure out when this needs to be done. I probably don't notice the empty role because I am concentrating so hard on not forgetting to put the toilet seat down. I guess Ben doesn't have this problem because he lived with his parents for a really _, really_ long time. He had his mother and sister Hanna nagging him into shape.

But Ben is not totally immune, which brings us to problem number four. More than once Zylie has walked out of the 'fresher with a pair of tighty-whitey underwear held out at arms length and with a extreme look of disgust on her face. "Ben you left you underwear on the floor near the 'fresher shower!" she would call out.

"How do you know it's not Talon's?" her sister would ask.

"Because Talon wears sexy red or blue boxer briefs or shape-lifting basket briefs!" She announced to the entire ship.

Stang! That's a little too much information Zylie. Your sister doesn't need to know the color and style of my undergarments. Oh well, at least Zylie didn't mention that mesh tanga she bought me.

Every day I find out something else I am doing wrong. I went into the small med center to get some headache medicine and the 2-1B med-droid requested to examine my ears. When I asked him why he said he overheard my wife saying I had, _'selective hearing'_. I reassured 2-1B that selective hearing is not an actual medical problem, but instead it's a _timing_ problem…like the time Zylie wanted to talk about ...I don't remember the topic…but it was during the final two minutes of a shockball game that went into triple overtime.

I'm such a screw-up as a husband.

I'm really trying hard, but I wouldn't be surprised if Zylie divorced me before our honeymoon phase is over. I called up my dad for advice. He's been happily married for decades. He told me he did all of the same annoying things and his marriage survived. He said he's never heard of a woman divorcing her husband for not putting a toilet seat down. Women leave men because of infidelity, addictions, financial problems, trust issues or abuse. My dad advised me to treat her like I did when we were dating, court her, love her and be loyal and I'll be alright.

My father makes it sound easy. Maybe it is that simple.

Be that as it may, I still think having two 'freshers is a good idea.

.

.

**_Entry 13_ **

In the past week things have been getting slightly better with the living arrangements. It just took some getting used to. It did help that I programed ID10T to tidy up the 'fresher. Boy, that didn't go over well with the droid. He explained to me in great detail that he was a very sophisticated pilot/navigator/protocol droid and that perhaps I should purchase a cleaning droid. I told him I have four droids on the ship already and I have reached my limit…therefore if he didn't want to find himself shot out the airlock he can periodically go to the 'fresher and ensure there is toilet paper, the seat is down and any discarded clothing was put in the laundry. Ten-Tee doesn't have humanoid facial features but his slumped head told me he was unhappy with my decision…if his programing allows him to be unhappy that is.

I told the droid. "Hey, it could be worse. I could put you on vornskr poodoo removal duty."

The droid made a weird noise that sounded like a sigh. "Yes, Master Tantiss…my lot in life could surely be worse. I could be sent to the Mon Gazza Spice Mines."

I rolled my eyes. "Aren't you being a little overdramatic? It's not like I'm making you the cleaning droid of a skinholo theater. Your job isn't bad. Just be thankful you're not a sewage repair droid or a Hutt gastroenterologist droid."

ID10T was silent for a moment. "May I ask sir, did I displease you in some manner? Why was I chosen for these extra duties and not 2-1B?"

I scoffed. "The surgical droid? Why would I want to irritate a droid that can sedate me, open me up and rearrange my internal organs?"

ID10T turned his head towards me. "Sir, may I point out that it is impossible for 2-1B to do anything counter to his programing. If you are postulating impossible scenarios one would think you would be more concerned about a fatal error made by your pilot droid."

My eyes narrowed. Did this droid just threaten me? I think he noticed my look of disbelief because he quickly added, "Of course all droids aboard this ship are programed to ensure the safety of the crew."

I glared at Ten-Tee as I left the flight deck. I knew there was a reason why I didn't like droids.

.

.

**_Entry 14_ **

Ben and I were called out on our very first assignment as roving Jedi. Valla and Zylie would have to continue this shipment run without us. Cargo ports are dangerous, so I was a little worried, but it turns out her father had foreseen this possibility. Zylie said her dad made arrangements for private security guards to meet the ship and provide protection if Ben and I were ever called away. That is a load off my mind. Zylie and Valla have been to hundreds or ports, but Aves, Chin or their parents were always with them. This galaxy is a dangerous place and nothing demonstrates that better than the mission we were now called to perform.

Ben and I are going to the planet Vandelhelm where we would contact the commander of the Galactic Alliance Security or GAS (that sounds so stupid. Who names a government organization with the acronym GAS. I guess it could be worse, it could be GAG).

Vandelhelm is a heavily industrial planet best known for their extensive mining operations. The planet's large industrial base attracted hundreds of thousands of guest workers in recent years to labor in factories or the mines. There was a need for strong backs because much of the ore being excavated gave off energy emissions that interfered with the function of mining droids. Because of the huge influx of male miners, Vandelhelm eventually ended up with a misbalance between men and women. This, unfortunately, resulted in a growing pleasure slave trade on the planet. The local governing barons gave a blind eye to the problem since happy workers were productive workers. It wasn't until the daughter of a high-ranking aristocrat was kidnapped that the problem was brought to the attention of GAS. After all, you can't have the young daughter of somebody important passed around the barracks. It makes me sick to my stomach when leaders overlook crimes until it affects them.

Ben and I said goodbye to our wives, fired up our StealthX's and headed out to Vandelhelm. The planet is along the Rimma Trade Route that the _Vazy Princess_ was currently traveling. With any luck we would find the missing girl and be able to rendezvous with our ship at its last cargo drop off on Sullust.

It felt good to be flying. I was getting claustrophobic in that ship. I know I am literally in a much smaller ship now, but looking out of the canopy I felt free. The ship was an extension of my body and I was flying out among the stars.

I toggled the radio to a private channel to Ben's fighter. "This is _Vazy Two_ to _Vazy One_."

Ben responded, "You're coming in loud and clear." Ben pulled his fighter next to mine so I could see him.

"We need better call signs."

"I am not going to call you _Hot and Sexy Knight_ , if that is what you are getting at." I could hear Ben chuckle.

"How about the _Vornskr Slayer_?"

"I am fairly sure Zylie wouldn't appreciate that call sign." There was a slight pause. "How about _Red Knight_?"

"For me?" I asked confused.

"No, for me."

"I guess."

We flew in silence for a short time before I broached the subject that was on my mind. "How is married life treating you?"

"I love it!" I could tell Ben was smiling as he talked. "How about you?"

"I love it also…but I am having a hard time adjusting to living on a ship. I miss going out to the clubs and holotheaters with Zylie. I miss fresh air."

"Did Coruscant have fresh air?" Ben joked. "Seriously, I know what you mean. It is a bit confining."

"If it wasn't for all the hot sex I would have gone crazy by now."

"Too much information, Talon," Ben said with a chuckle.

"No…telling you what we did last night would be too much information."

"Talon…we shouldn't be discussing private matters behind our wives' backs. I don't want them finding out and getting mad."

I laughed. "Gods, you are whipped."

"So said Lord Talon exulted Emperor of the Whipped Ones. All hail our supreme leader."

"Shut up." I looked over my instrument panel. "I'm going to take a nap. I'll let my R9 take over."

"You should give him a name."

"I'm not naming a droid. They're not pittins."

"Mine has a name."

I rolled my eyes. "What's your R9's name?"

"Niner."

"Well that _is_ creative. I think I'll call mine R-Nine. _Vasy Two_ out."

I turned off the radio and informed R-Nine that he was in charge and please don't fly me into a black hole. It beeped out some gibberish that I hope was an affirmative. I don't care what Ben says, I am not going to name these damn droids and I'm not going to treat them like people. They are just as sentient as our new food synthesizer and I don't see anybody talking to that.

I'll write more when we get to our destination. Now is the time to rest.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Entry 15_ **

It took over twenty hours to get to Vandelhelm. Fortunately, I only had to relieve myself once utilizing our brand new StealthX pilot urine collection system—officially called the _Mission Lengthening Device_ or MLD. Zylie thought that was an extremely funny name for an inflatable cup that goes over my private parts and is connected to a suction hose. She asked me exactly what it was supposed to lengthen. Ha ha, really funny.

The MLD is worn under my flight suit. The system automatically detects moisture and activates the suction that pulls the urine into a disposable bag. It's much more efficient than using handheld piss-n-bags which consisted of a sealable plastobag with a highly absorbent sponge inside. Unfortunately, the suction has to be strong enough to not only pull the urine quickly away from the body, but to make a tight seal between the cup and my body. It is a _very_ unnerving sensation, in fact, the first time I used it I startled so much I whacked my head against the back of my seat. Later, I made the big mistake of telling Ben this because he ribbed me unmercifully for weeks about my overly enthusiastic MLD.

I'm digressing again; let me get back to the story.

Ben and I land on Vandelhelm and took an airspeeder to GAS headquarters. There we met Captain Norrkin, a tall, burly human with a ridiculously thin mustache. He asked us to take a seat across from his desk as he started the briefing. The GAS commander activated a holoprojector on his desk and we watched what looked like a security cam holovid.

"The young woman there is Baron Zekl's daughter Sola Zekl." The commander pointed to a pretty blond girl in her late teens. After a moment a speeder van pulls up next to her and two masked men burst out of the rear of the vehicle, grab the girl, push her into the van and sped off. "We tracked the speeder to the warehouse district where they exited the vehicle and entered an abandoned warehouse. Holocams didn't record anybody exiting the building, but there are underground pedestrian tunnels that could be accessed from the structure. Unfortunately there were no security cams in the area where they could have entered the underpasses and we couldn't find any further visual evidence of the kidnappers or the girl."

"So they can be anywhere." Ben said as he studied the holo. "Do you have sniffers out?"

I turned to him. "Sniffers?" Ben was a Jedi Sentinel trained in security and investigation. I was a Guardian and mainly a ground pounder. I worked in the battlefield. I've never heard of a _sniffer_.

Ben turned to me. "It is a highly sensitive hoverdroid that continuously samples the air and analyzes for DNA. Get a sample of the daughter's DNA from her toothbrush, obtain a DNA profile and program it into the sniffer. The droid then goes throughout the city looking for that particular DNA profile floating about. It works a little like police canines that track by smell."

"Why would her DNA be floating around?"

Ben shifted in his chair so he could look directly at me. "Because Talon, humans shed approximately 400,000 epidermal cells from our skin everyday. In addition, our saliva contains DNA by way of buccal epithelial cells and white blood cells. Talking, sneezing, coughing or spitting can spread that DNA into the environment. A woman getting kidnapped would struggle, kick, and scream and therefore shed a great deal of cells into the environment."

"And that's exactly what happened, Jedi Skywalker." Captain Norrkin pushed a few buttons and another image emerged from the holoprojector. "The sniffers found her DNA in the following areas." He gestured to a map with an area shaded in red. "We found DNA from where she left her home and traveled by personal speeder to a parking lot. She exited the lot and was walking down the pedestrian pathway when she was abducted. We believe the large search area may be due to the wind blowing around any shed epidermis cells. That, or the kidnappers moved her to a different speeder and drove around with the windows open."

Ben looked at the map for a moment. "Did you recover the speeder?"

"We did. It was stolen and the captors activated a delayed detonation device to burn the vehicle. We didn't get any useful DNA samples of our conspirators."

Ben nodded. "They're smart. Why do you think she was snatched by a slave ring?"

The Captain smoothed out his mustache with his fingers as he talked. "There's been no ransom demand and the area she was in was highly populated by pleasure brothels and clubs."

I frowned at that comment. "Why would a young girl go there?"

The Captain shrugged his shoulders. "There is a mall area near there that is a bit seedy but some rich people find it trendy to go to these edgy parts of town. Also, some youngsters frequent the area to buy spice sticks or other intoxicants."

"Did Sola use?" Ben asked.

"We did a toxicology test on hair strands taken from her hairbrush at her home and we didn't find any evidence of drug use. Our street informants have heard rumors that she was sighted in a club called _Euphoria_. We don't have enough information to get a search permit. We sent undercover officers in, but no luck. We've heard good things about your Jedi Sentinel training. We are hoping you can help."

"We'll need some local clothing," Ben told the Captain. "And we'll go in to see what we find."

**.**

**.**

**______________________________________________________________________________________**

**_I want to get this journal entry down before I forget everything that happened._ **

**_Our little undercover mission was both amusing and horrifying at the same time._ **

**_~Talon Tantiss~_ **

 

**_ENTRY 16_ **

Ben and I were given well-worn and stained mineworker clothing to wear. They were ugly, but at least they didn't stink. We were also provided handheld DNA analyzers or _mini-sniffers_ for the investigation.

It took us most of the day to prepare. There was a lot more to undercover work than I thought. First of all, Ben and I had to research the club's history, blueprints, and a map of the surrounding area. Then I had to work on getting rid of my Coruscanti accent. Honestly, I never considered myself as having an accent. Outer Core speakers were the ones with the accents. Uncle Luke has a rimworld accent and so does Ben. My Aunt Mara has something in between. Ben said I enunciate certain words in a way that would make me stand out on Vandelhelm.

He also said I walk too much like a Jedi; I should slouch my shoulders more. We were supposed to be miners who work long, exhausting, soul crushing hours in horrific conditions. It took a while, but by the end of the day he said I had a passable mid-rim accent and looked despondent enough to impersonate a local.

We took public transportation to the pleasure brothel district and walked to the club _Euphoria_. The giant Barabel bouncer outside gave us a cursory look and waved us through. We passed through weapons sensors, but we were using electronic confounders to hide the presence of our lightsabers under our jackets.

The place was packed—mainly with humans although there were some Sullustans milling about. Almost all of the males were wearing various types of work clothing. The women…well they weren't wearing much of anything. Oddly enough, in all that background information we read about club _Euphoria,_ not once did it mention that it was a topless establishment…but it is. Ben was next to me and he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a herd of bouncing boobs passing by (or is the correct term pack or flock? Ha!). He made some funny choking noise as his face turned redder than his hair.

Great! He was worried about me blowing our cover with my accent and now he's freezing up. I pulled him aside to talk. "Ben, we're supposed to be hardened miners coming to the club to drink and kriff women. You can't be standing here like a Krugga deer trapped in a speeder's headlights."

Ben cleared his throat and I can tell he was steeling himself for what we had to do. "Stang Talon. I'm not like you. I've never been to a pleasure house before. I didn't think it would be like this."

I was taken aback by that comment. "You're not like me? Why would you think I frequented pleasure houses in the past?"

He shrugged. "There was that rumor about you…"

"Stop!" I interrupted him knowing exactly what he was going to say. "I heard that particular rumor and it's _not_ true, I don't care what the sleemo gossip holozines say! Even with the Force it is humanly impossible to do what they said I did." I was getting a little irate. Awful rumors followed me throughout my late teens and early twenties after a HoloNet gossip show speculated that I was Luke Skywalker's lovechild—which I'm not! I would look exactly like my father if he didn't dye his hair red and eyes green. That erroneous report began a chain reaction of slanderous stories about me. With very few exceptions everything written about my reportedly incessant sexual proclivity was completely false. "Stang, Ben! I can't believe you believed that drivel." I gave a dry chuckle. "Besides, nobody has that much endurance!"

Ben's face flushed with embarrassment. "Sorry Talon. I figured if anybody could pull off that stunt it would be you." A queasy smile crossed his face. "I guess we should look around and discretely ask questions."

"Sure," I said while giving him a hard look for believing that rumor.

We walked around looking for any women who resembled Sola. The entire time Ben kept his head up and eyes forward and avoided looking at any female from the neck down. I gave a silent chuckle. I'm sure nobody would find that suspicious (he wrote sarcastically).

Not wanting to look too conspicuous we eventually ordered some drinks and found a table to sit at. As soon as we were seated a couple lovely ladies took the opportunity to sit on our laps. "Hi lover," a buxom green Twi'lek whispered in my ear seductively as she ran a hand down my chest. "Do you want a date?"

In the prostitution trade, _'date'_ is a polite euphemism for _kriff._ I gave her my best smirk. "I would love to, but I only have enough credits for my drink. If you are willing to give me a freebie or do something on layaway, that'll work." I was desperately hoping the answer would be ' _No'_ , because I wasn't sure how well I could fake impotency after being surrounded by a room full of scantily clad women.

Luckily, the Twi'lek quickly stood and glowered at me. "Come back on payday." She then briskly walked away. I laughed and looked over to Ben and was shocked by what I saw. He had a big breasted, red skinned Zeltron sitting on his lap. She was nibbling on his ear while her hands explored places they shouldn't be exploring. Ben sat wide-eyed and appeared to have trouble breathing. It was like somebody had a Force hold on him. I then realized what was going on. That Zeltron was exuding pheromones that discombobulated my poor cousin's brain. Unless you are expecting it, a Zeltron can get the best of a Jedi…I should know.

I guffawed at Ben's panicked expression. This is one time I can save him, instead of the other way around. "Hey beautiful," I murmured to the topless dancer as I stood and gently pulled her hand off Ben's upper thigh. "We don't have the credits and we don't want the establishment's heavies breaking our legs for not paying for a _date_." I gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry."

She smiled as she stood. "It's too bad." She looked down at my redheaded cousin. "He's cute." She gave me a wave and walked off. I turned back to Ben whose face was as white as a Wompa.

"What the hell was that?" he gasped.

I chuckled. "You just experienced Zeltron pheromones on overload. If I didn't save you she probably would have your last credit."

Ben buried his head in his hands. "Kriff! Valla is going to kill me."

"Why? Nothing happened." I sat back down. "Just don't tell her. I won't tell her."

Ben shook his head. "I can't lie to her. She'll know I'm hiding something and she'll just assume the worst."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, I'll explain to Valla that you were in a Zeltron pheromone haze when you allowed the woman to grope you."

"Not funny, Talon." He turned to me. "Why didn't she affect you?"

I smirked. "Ben I dated a Zeltron for years. Remember Nalli'ti? If I didn't learn how to block out her pheromones I would have been watching romance holoflicks and going to the opera every weekend. Before I figured out how to resist her chemical manipulations she had me going to ballroom dancing classes with her! Ballroom dancing!"

That got a faint smile from him. "Thanks for saving me." Ben took a couple deep, cleansing breaths. "Let's mingle and ask questions. I want to be out of here as soon as possible."

**_I will write more about what happened later. Ben caught me writing in this journal and is now threatening me with bodily harm if I am recounting his embarrassing encounter with a Zeltron._ **

.

.

**_ENTRY- CLOSED & ENCRYPTED._ **

**_._ **

**_._ **

**_I have some time to write. I'll try to recall as much as I can before I forget all the details._ **

**_Entry 17_ **

We spent a couple hours talking to people in the club while nursing our drinks. Ben put up a good front, but I could sense he was extremely uncomfortable with this mission. I don't blame him, Valla and Zylie are not going to be happy about this. Of course, it's not like they have anything to worry about; none of these women can compare to the Karrde sisters. Ben and I won the MegaCredit Lotto jackpot when we snagged those two.

We had a small photo of Sola on flimsifilm paper. We would show it to the male customers saying we are looking for our favorite girl who left another establishment and was supposedly working in the area. To our surprise we found two men who claimed they saw her and one of the men said he had sex with her in this very club two days ago. He even mentioned a small birthmark on her thigh. We would have to access Sola's medical records or talk to her father to see if she had a birthmark that matched that description. It is possible that he was simply with a lookalike.

Ben tried to press him for more information about Sola's health and frame of mind, but the man suddenly became evasive. "What's this about? She was fine when I left her. If something happened to her it's not on me."

Ben threw his hands up in a placating gesture. "Hey, we're just trying to find a friend." We walked away from the men before they got more suspicious. When we were out of earshot Ben nudged me with his elbow. "I sense they were lying."

Ben is much better at detecting people's emotions than I am. I guess that is why I didn't become a Sentinel. He has to be an expert on reading people, not only through the Force but also by their mannerisms and body language. My job is much easier. Just point me toward the enemy and I kill anything waving a weapon in my direction.

"I didn't notice anything odd, other than they appeared a little nervous. Why would they lie?"

Ben shrugged. "I don't know, but their story sounded rehearsed."

"Should we follow them?"

Ben shook his head. "I put micro-trackers on their jackets. I'll be able to see where they went without having to shadow them."

I gave Ben a sidelong glance. "I'm impressed. I didn't see you do that."

He shrugged off the compliment. "I just used the Force to place them under their collars."

I had to smile at Ben's modesty. His control of the Force always dwarfed my telekinetic abilities. It's true that I could Force shove better than him, but I didn't have any subtle control; brute force was my forte.

I cautiously pulled out the DNA analyzer from my pocket. "My sensor doesn't show any DNA readings indicating Sola was ever here."

"Same here." Ben looked around the crowded room. "But look at this place. It's packed and I assume it's scrubbed down at closing." He shuddered at the thought. "I really hope the 'fresher is scrubbed down at least. There is way too much DNA inside that facility." He turned to me. "If she's here she's probably in the backrooms where all the sex is happening. I need you to go back there and check it out."

"What?" I regarded Ben questioningly. "I'm sure the Captain's undercover agents already scanned the backrooms."

"That was three days ago. She might not have been there then. Also you have your Force abilities that will help you look for her."

I looked over to the huge human bouncer guarding the door leading to the rear part of the building. "Ben, I could use a mind trick to get past the guard, but I am sure this place is packed with security cams. If I'm seen going back there without a girl, security will come running."

"Then go in with a girl," Ben insisted.

I folded my arms over my chest. "No way! I'm not going to put myself in a situation that is going to get me divorced."

He shook his head. "I'm not asking you to have sex. Just get to the backrooms so the sensors can take a DNA sample, do a little Force reconnaissance, then make some excuse and get out."

My eyes went wide. "Why don't _you_ go do it yourself?"

Ben's face tightened. "Because you are much more comfortable around women than I am. You've dated dozens of women before you hooked up with Zylie."

My eyes narrowed. "Not that many."

"Talon, I'll be the first to admit that I am outside my comfort zone right now. I can feel my face is already flushed. My skin is probably redder than a Devaronian's."

That got a chuckle out of me. "It _is_ a lovely shade of mortified red."

Ben looked at me gravely. "And that means I'll look suspicious."

I sighed as I rubbed a hand over my face. "Fine, I'll do it." I reached into my pockets and pulled out some credits. "Do you know the going rate?"

Ben frowned. "Why would I know the going rate for a prostitute?"

I rolled my eyes. "Because the mighty Sentinel was supposed to research all aspects of this mission."

"Oh," Ben looked down embarrassed. "Sorry, I missed that detail." He reached into his pocket and pulled out some credits. "This should be enough."

"Great. Just kriff'n great. If Zylie divorces me…this is on your head, Ben." I gave him a tight smile that probably looked more like a scowl. "Wish me luck." I turned and searched for a suitable lady. I wanted to avoid Zeltrons. I may be good at resisting their pheromones, but why risk it. I settled on a bouncy blond that was flittering around the room propositioning men. I moved up next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "You working?"

She turned to me and smiled. "I am. Do you want a date?"

"I don't have many credits. How much?"

She gave me a sultry look. "It depends on what you want?"

_I am going to kill Ben for putting me in this situation._

"Umm…just a…umm. What's your cheapest…thing?"

"A Coruscanti Swirl is fifty credits."

I wasn't sure what that meant, but I agreed. "Where do we go?"

"In the backroom." She motioned me to follow.

I made sure the handheld DNA sensor was activated as I followed her through the doorway and down a long hall. She finally brought me to a small chamber that held a full-size bed covered with some nasty stained sheets. It took all my willpower not to shudder. I am fairly sure if we put this room under a body-fluid-sensing UV light it would glow like a supernova.

She turned to me and started unbuckling my belt. I tensed at her touch and I knew I needed to get the hell out of here. I decided on a Jedi mind trick. I removed her hands from my belt and re-buckled it while saying, "That was wonderful." I used all the power in the Force I could muster to make her think we had done the deed and were completing the transactions. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a hundred-credit chip. "Here, keep the change."

She looked at the chip for a second and then back at me and I could tell she was confused, but then she shrugged and snatched the credit chip from my hand and gave me a huge smile. "Thanks. You're a stud."

' _True, so true'_ , I thought with a smirk.

"Well, I guess I'll be going." I adjusted my tunic and walked out the door and went in the opposite direction from which we came. I was almost to the end of the hall before she called out. "You're going the wrong way. The exit is that way." She pointed in the opposite direction.

I made a show of looking confused. "Oh sorry." I had the DNA sample; now it was time for a Force recon. As I moved down the hallway I reached out with the Force and attempted to feel the emotions and touch the minds of the occupants nearby. I was searching for a young girl who was probably terrified.

I sucked in a breath as a deluge of sensations rolled over me like a strong, foul current. By the time I was out of that den of sexual depravity I was feeling ill and needed some air. I found Ben and grabbed him by his sleeve. "Let's get out of here."

"Okay," Ben followed me out of the club. "So…what happened back there? Did you sense anything?"

"Ben." My voice was tight with emotion. "I sensed things… vile things, but I didn't see or feel the presence of Sola. I got the impression that the women in the back area were experienced sex workers. I didn't feel the presence of a frightened teenager. I did get your DNA sniffer sample," I handed Ben the DNA _sniffer_. "Can we please call it a day?"

"Sure." Ben said softly as he hailed an airtaxi. I guess he sensed I was upset because he wisely kept quiet during the ride back to our hotel.

I will write more later.

**_Entry-Closed._ **


	4. Chapter 4

**_Entry 18_ **

When we arrived to our hotel room I immediately went to shower. I needed to get the stink of cigarras, Armudu Spice, tabac and Marcan herbal smoke out of my hair. I really hate going to clubs that allow smoking or don't have sufficient blowers to filter the air. It's too bad that the hot water couldn't cleanse the decadent images out of my mind. I could have handled Force visions of a sensual nature, but most of what I saw had little to do with sex and more to do with humiliation, bondage, and sadism. I shuddered under the hot water as I tried to purge my mind of the imagery. The thought that a young teen may be forced into that life made me sick to my stomach.

When I exited the 'fresher, I found Ben staring at his datapad intently. "Are you tracking those men?"

He nodded. "It looks like they are on the midnight shift at one of the local mines. We'll stop by GAS headquarters tomorrow to see if they have Sola's medical records or at least a list of distinguishing marks on her body to help us identify her. I'd like to see if these guys actually saw our victim or somebody that looked like her. Then I think we should go talk to her father. When we're are in his house maybe we can pick up something with the Force."

He shut off the datapad and stood. "I hope you saved me some hot water. I smell like a rancid spice stick."

"The water was hot when I got out." I paused for a moment. "Ben, do you think the women there were slaves or employees? I didn't see any slave collars."

"They could have explosive chip implants, but I think the women who work on the floor of the club were employees. It wouldn't make sense to put slaves out in the open. They're probably sold to individuals and kept in isolation."

I sighed deeply. If that were true it would be almost impossible to find Sola. "We should talk to your father about this when we get back. Maybe the Jedi can do something to close down this illicit trade."

Ben shook his head. "The Jedi don't have any enforcement authority without orders from the Chief-of-State and the Galactic Alliance doesn't like to get involved in planetary law enforcement unless they are invited to assist. From what we've been told the locals turn a blind eye to this illegal trade. There's nothing much we can do, other than report what's going on."

"You're right," I admitted. "Any change has to come from the local authorities."

"The best we can do is find Sola and make sure she's safe." Ben grabbed a change of underclothes and walked to the 'fresher. "We'll start fresh tomorrow morning."

.

.

**_Entry 19_ **

The next day we took a taxi back to GAS headquarters. There we accessed Sola's medical records and discovered she did have a small red blemish on her upper thigh, just like the one man described. That is another thing I found odd. If the birthmark was as small as a fingernail how did he remember such an unremarkable fact? I would think he'd be drunk on intoxicants and oblivious to anything but doing the deed.

We then requested an opportunity to talk to Baron Zekl. Ben wanted to get into the house to allow me to use my post-cognitive Force abilities. When I touch items I sometimes get a vision showing me the last person who held the object, what it was used for or other events surrounding the object. Ben wishes he had this ability. It is _really, really_ helpful in investigations. That is why he always drags me down to the GAS crime lab on Coruscant. I personally HATE using this skill in criminal investigations. It's awful. Ben will hand me a knife and ask me what I can glean from it. The first time he did that to me I dropped the knife and threw up. Kriff! People are evil! I really could have gone the rest of my life without seeing what a serial cannibal did with that knife. Yuck!

One of Captain Norrkin's sergeants drove us to Sola's home to meet her father. Baron Zekl was a stern looking, foul tempered man who didn't even wait until we were seated before he started berating us. He didn't thank us for coming to the planet to assist in the search. Instead he demanded to know why we haven't found his daughter. He questioned our competence and work ethics and accused us of kriffing around the local dens of iniquities instead of trying to help. In other words, he's a jerk.

Ben kept his calm and tried to reassure the Baron that we were doing everything in our power to find his daughter. He asked if we could look around to see if we could pick up anything with our Jedi senses. That initiated a second diatribe from the man. What he didn't know was—while he was verbally abusing us—I was already at work.

We were sitting in the Baron's office and I was immediately aware that something was not right about him. He didn't appear to be a heartbroken father. I sensed no worry or anguish, only annoyance and impatience. I was always told people grieve differently, but he had a coldness about him that made my skin crawl. As I touched the armrest of my chair I closed my eyes and tried to visualize past events that transpired in this office. I could see flashes of the Baron fighting with his daughter before he slapped her and yelled ' _You will obey'_. I opened my eyes and interrupted the Baron's tirade. "Baron Zekl, did you have an argument with your daughter before she disappeared?"

He fell silent and gave me a withering gaze. "What business is that of yours?"

I shrugged. "It could explain why she left and went to a bad section of town. There _is_ a spaceport in that area, perhaps she ran away."

The Baron shook his head. "Are you blind or merely stupid? There was a security holovid showing her abduction! Besides, we checked all the manifests. She wasn't on any departing ship."

"You don't deny you two fought," Ben pressed for an answer.

The Baron gave a frustrated grunt. "She is to marry Baron Mekss next month. She was upset. According to Sola, her betrothed is an old, ugly and repulsively obese man whom she did not love. I reminded her that he was also rich, powerful and well connected. Marriages between the various houses on this planet have always been politically motivated. Rarely does a noble marry for love. That's what concubines are for…for the husband that is. She was raised and trained and understood what is expected of her."

_Wow! What a mega-jerk!_

Ben nodded his head feigning commiseration. "I understand. Can we see her bedroom?"

It looked like he was going to refuse, but eventually he stood and led us out of the office and to her room.

It was a large bedroom beautifully decorated with antique furniture, expensive rugs, crown molding and just about every electronic device a teenager would want to include a HoloNet projector, computer and hologame systems. It was the standard spoiled rich kid's room.

Ben turned to the Baron. "Can Jedi Tantiss and I have a moment alone to…meditate?"

The Baron scowled and gave us a dismissive gesture. "Fine, you know where my office is."

I closed the door behind him and looked at Ben. "Could she have run away? Having to marry a old, ugly, fat guy might be a big incentive to do so."

Ben nodded. "Maybe, but if she ran away and was snatched while going to the spaceport, we'll still have to find her."

"Let me see if I could sense anything here." I moved around the room touching her writing table, chairs, walls and windows. I brushed my hand over one windowsill and hesitated. I closed my eyes to concentrate on the Force vision forming in my mind. I saw a young man entering the room through the open window. Sola was saying, **' _You shouldn't be here. My father will kill you._ '**

The young man looked to be in his late teens or early twenties. He was dark haired, handsome and appeared completely enamored with Sola. _' **Sola, I can't let you go through with that awful marriage. Run away with me. Please, I love you.'**_

She shook her head. ' ** _My father would hunt us down. He would rather see me dead than let me go counter to his wishes.'_**

' ** _We can depart the planet. I've scrounged up enough money.'_**

She shook her head ** _. 'He's resourceful; he'll find me and drag me to the wedding altar kicking and screaming.'_**

The image of the couple then faded. Frustrated I moved around the room to try to discover more information, but I couldn't see anything more. Post-cognitive abilities are sometimes fickle. Occasionally I just get fleeting visions, other times I picked up long complex imageries. Unfortunately I got the abbreviated version this time.

"Did you see anything?" Ben asked.

"Yes." I looked up to him and gave a guarded smile. "I think I did. Maybe we should go see those men you have tagged."

.

.

**_ENTRY 20_ **

Ben and I went back to the hotel room and got to work tracking down the young men. We picked up their signals and the Planetary Tracking System pinned them to a rundown apartment complex in a high crime rate neighborhood. Ben's tracking devices were so sensitive he was able to pinpoint their position to an exact apartment. Records showed three men rented the flat: Kejy Drak, Jsaplo Loen and Rendy Loen.

Ben pulled up employment photo documentation for the three men and I made a positive identification of Sola's young man as Rendy Loen. Jsaplo Loen was Rendy's older brother. According to the records, Drak was no relation to the Loen brothers. Ben pulled up their police records and found that the Loen brothers were clean. Drak had one misdemeanor court date pending. It was a petty larceny charge for stealing items from the corner drugstore.

Ben looked up at me and shrugged. "They're not what I would call the usual suspects." He stood and put on his Jedi cloak. "Let's take a ride to their apartment and have a little talk with them."

When we arrived to their apartment door Ben took out his DNA analyzer and smiled. "She's been here."

"You think she is with her boyfriend Rendy?"

"That would be our best case scenario. The worst case would be her boyfriend tricked her and sold her off."

"Yeah, that would be the ultimate betrayal." Ben went to ring the doorbell, but I stopped him. "Wait, how do you want to play this?"

Ben looked a little confused. "Play this?"

"Yeah, I've seen police holovids. Good cop, bad cop. Which do you want me to be?"

Ben laughed and shook his head. "Talon, we're Jedi Knights. We don't play a version of Jedi cop, Sith cop."

I was a little disappointed, but I guess having a Jedi Knight yelling and intimidating suspects would sully the Order's reputation.

Ben rang the door buzzer. After a few moments a man we identified as Kejy Drak came to the door. He looked at us confused. "Yeah?"

Ben pulled out his identification. "My name is Ben Skywalker." He motioned toward me. "This is Talon Tantiss. We're Jedi Knights working on the behalf of the Galactic Alliance Security and the local authorities in the search for a missing…."

That was all that he got out before this guy tried to bolt out the front door. He didn't get far before Ben and I got a Force hold on the man holding him fast. "Let me go! I didn't do anything!"

"Then why are you running?" I said as I grabbed him by the collar and started pulling him back toward his apartment.

"What's going on here?" came a voice from within the dwelling. We turned to find Jsaplo Loen standing in the doorway still dressed in his work clothes. He was a pale, gaunt looking man who looked much older than the twenty-eight years of age that his records indicated. "You're the guys from the club. I thought you were cops."

"We're not the police, but Jedi Knights on temporary duty here to search for a missing woman," Ben explained. "Are you Jsaplo Loen?"

"Yeah, but I don't know anything about a missing woman."

Ben pulled out the DNA analyzer. "This device shows the DNA of Sola Zekl is in and around this apartment."

The man smirked. "Is she the girl you showed us last night? If so, I already told you I made out with her. Her DNA was all over me and I brought it home."

Ben gave him a knowing look. "The level of DNA is much too high to be explained by transference. She was inside this apartment. We'll call in a forensics team and I am sure we will find her fingerprints."

The thin man sighed deeply before he pointed to his friend. "He knows nothing. Let him go and I'll tell you everything."

Ben shook his head. "We're not letting a potential suspect go until we talk."

The two men looked at each other for a moment before Jsaplo nodded and motioned us to enter. I kept a grip on the other man's collar until we got inside. I then pushed him down on the couch that occupied the main room of the apartment. Loen sat down next to his roommate. "Sola Zekl was here," he admitted.

Ben nodded. "Where is she now?"

Jsaplo took a deep breath and let it out. "She's dead. I killed her."

My stomach dropped. This was not how I hoped this case would turn out.

Ben gazed at the man intensely. "Where's her body?"

Jsaplo leered at Ben. It was an expression that made me want to smack it right off his face.

"I dumped her body in a smelting furnace. There's nothing left of her."

Ben didn't react in the way I expected. He laughed at the man. "You expect me to believe that?"

I could feel a spike of panic from Jsaplo. "It's true."

"How did you get ahold of her?" Ben asked. "Were you and your buddies the ones who kidnapped her?"

I would feel a twinge of panic from the other man now and I suspect Ben was spot on in his assumption that these men were the kidnappers.

"No, I bought her on the slave market. I took her here. The sex got a little rough and I accidently killed her."

"So, you're telling me a low paying miner saved enough money up to buy a sex slave. Why pay all that money for one woman when you can rent them at the local sex clubs?"

He averted his eyes and shrugged. "The local sex clubs don't like it when you accidently kill their girls."

Ben crossed his arms in front of his chest as he gazed down at the man with a slight smirk on his face. "You would have had to save for years to buy a woman. Miners are usually not the thrifty type. I can't see you saving the thousands of credits needed to buy a young female."

"I can prove it." He pointed to a datapad on a nearby table. "Hand me my datapad and I will pull up my bank records. You'll see I had the credits and then withdrew it."

"Can you get that for me Talon?"

I walked over and retrieved the datapad and tossed it to the man. He punched at the screen for a few seconds and then handed the datapad back to me. On the screen was bank account information for a Jsaplo Loen. "He had five thousand credits in his account." I looked at Ben. "A day after Sola's kidnapping he withdrew four thousand credits."

"This is all on me." Jsaplo said defiantly. "My roommate didn't know anything. He has warrants for shoplifting; that's why he ran."

Ben rocked back on his heels and cocked and eyebrow. "And why exactly are you confessing all of this?"

Jsaplo looked confused at the line of questioning. "I…uhh…I feel guilty. I deserve to go to jail. I've…" he was interrupted by a coughing fit. He brought up his sleeve to muffle his cough. When the attack subsided I notice there were flecks of blood on his hand and tunic. I grabbed his arm to get a better look. "You're sick."

The man grimaced. "Ore lung. I'm dying."

"Ore Lung is treatable," Ben pointed out.

"The mining company keeps our hours just under forty hours a week so they don't have to provide us with medical or dental benefits. I don't have insurance."

"But the treatment is not that expensive. Your five thousand credits would have paid for a large percentage of the medical care needed. Why waste the money on a girl?"

A sad expression crossed his face. "Sometimes the right woman is worth the credits."

I wasn't sure why we were still talking to this guy. We should have stun-cuffed him by now and hauled his butt off to jail, but Ben remained standing in front of the man staring him down. "Where's your brother Rendy?"

Jsaplo Loen took in a sharp breath and I could see perspiration start to bead on his forehead. "He quit his crappy job working for a caterer and left this sleemhole of a town." He stood up from the couch and held his hands out in front of him inviting us to cuff him. "Listen, you got me. I confess. I killed Sola. Take me in."

Ben chuckled and pushed him back down on the couch. "Jsaplo Loen, you are trying way too hard to be arrested."

The sickly man began to squirm in his seat. "That's because I'm guilty."

"You're guilty of something, but not murder. I have a feeling Sola is alive and well and with your brother."

The man turned white in the face. "No, she's dead. Tell her father I killed her."

"Listen Jsaplo," Ben said slowly. "I know it was you, your roommate here and your brother that snatched Sola…which isn't a crime if Sola went along with you willingly."

"She's dead!" he insisted.

"I know that's what you want her father to believe. If she's dead he won't look for her. Sola knew her father would never let her marry your brother and if she ran away he would never stop looking for her…unless he thought she was dead. Four thousand credits is a lot of money. Money you probably were saving to get medical treatment, but instead you gave it to your brother…probably for forged passports and passage for two off planet."

I could see a tear running down the man's face. "She's dead. I killed her," he repeated like a mantra.

"Knowing you'll die without treatment, I guess life in prison doesn't frighten you, but I don't want to send an innocent man to jail." Ben turned to me. "My friend here has a unique Force ability. He can touch objects and receive visions of the past concerning those objects. He'll be able to tell me where they've gone if you made those plans in this apartment."

"If you know so much, why are you doing this?" The man said angrily. " Why can't you let her be?"

Ben's face softened. "Sola _is_ seventeen years old. She is considered an adult on this planet. She has every right to leave on her own accord. I am investigating a kidnapped girl. If you can prove to me she left willingly and is alive and well…then I can honestly say I couldn't find a kidnapping victim. Can you get her on a transceiver?"

The man stared at Ben for a long pause. "I heard you say your name was Skywalker. Any relation to Luke Skywalker?"

Ben nodded. "He's my father."

Jsaplo looked over to his friend. "What do you think?"

"His dad was the hero of the rebellion. I'd trust a Skywalker."

The man heaved a sigh. "If I help you, do you swear you'll go away and not tell her father she's alive?"

Ben nodded. "I just need to know she'll alright."

Jsaplo slowly stood and walked over to a HoloNet transceiver.

"Talon and I will stand out of sight. Just get Sola on the transceiver and ask her how she is doing. If she doesn't appear under duress…then we can forget about this entire fiasco."

"Okay." The man sat down in front of the transceiver and pushed a series of buttons. After a moment the face of a young man appeared. "Jsaplo," the man said happily. "How are things working out?"

Rendy's older brother gave a forced smiled. "The authorities believe Sola is kidnapped and possibly dead."

"Good," Rendy said with a chuckle. "I'm sure her father hasn't shed a tear for his daughter…maybe for his messed up wedding plans, but not for Sola."

"Can I see her?" Jsaplo asked.

Rendy gave his brother a guarded look, but then turned and called to somebody out of sight. "Jsaplo would like to see you."

After a moment the beautiful face of Sola Zekl appeared. "Jsaplo! I can't thank you enough for your help." She gave a broad smile as tears of joy ran down her cheeks. "We'll pay you back. Every credit."

The older man smiled. "Consider it a wedding present Sola. You make my brother very happy."

"That is so sweet, but it is too much Jsaplo. We'll get the money back to you. We know how much you wanted that new speeder."

The elder Loen gave a dry chuckle. "That's okay. I don't really need a speeder. I just wanted to make sure you got off planet alright and you two are well."

"We are," Sola reached out and pulled Rendy closer to her. "Thanks to you we're wonderful."

Loen gave a soft smile. "Good. I'll let you go. I love you two."

"We love you also," the two said on the other end before the connection was cut. He turned in his seat and looked at us. "Is that good enough?"

"Yes." Ben gave a sad smile. "You didn't tell them you were saving the money for medical treatments."

Loen shook his head with an air of resignation. "I never told my brother I was sick. It would worry him too much. When he needed the money I told him I had some that I was saving for a speeder. He would never have taken the money if he knew the truth." Jsaplo turned to us. "So what are you going to do?"

"Talon, can you pass me his datapad please." I handed over the device. Ben started tapping on it and then handed it to the older brother. "I booked you a flight to Coruscant. Report to the Jedi Temple and ask for Jaden Tantiss. He's my cousin," he motioned his head towards me. "And Talon's brother. He's also a doctor. He can be trusted to keep a secret. I'll make sure you get the treatments you need. Just get there. Other than that, we're marking this case as unsolved."

The man broke out in a sob. "Thank you."

"The local authorities will still be searching for her, so lay low. You may want to scrub down this apartment with a ten percent bleach solution, vacuum everything and wash all your clothing and bed sheets. You don't need roving DNA trackers zeroing in on this apartment." Ben turned to me. "Come on Talon. Let's go."

As we left the apartment I looked over to Ben as we walked down the hallway. "The guy was willing to die for his brother."

Ben shrugged. "That doesn't surprise me. I would die to protect my family." He gave me a smirk. "Even you."

I was touched by his admission. Ben and I grew up together and were as close as brothers. "Same here."

We exited the building and walked down the street in silence feeling a bit awkward at all the brotherly love talk.

"He probably didn't see himself in much danger. I have a feeling he had all the different possibilities planned out," Ben finally said. "If we did arrest him he could recant his confession and then refuse to make further comments under oath. As soon as he in in custody he would receive medical treatment for his disease because he is a ward of the state. It usually takes months or years for a defendant to go to trial. By the time he is cured he could get his lawyer to send a message to his brother. Sola could go to a local Galactic Alliance Security office on whatever planet she was living on and give a statement that she is alive and well and provide DNA as proof. The charges would be dropped and Jsaplo walked out a free and cured man. Her father would know she was alive, but by then she would probably be married and possibly with child."

"Smart man." I looked over to Ben. "This is going to ruin your perfect _'Case Solved'_ record."

"Hey, I solved it. I'm just keeping the results to myself."

"True. I think this is cause for celebration." I gave my cousin a one-arm hug around his shoulder. "Let's go to the Club _Euphoria_ and party."

Ben pushed me away. "No karking way!"

"Hey, maybe you can get another lap dance from that cute Zeltron." I joked. "I can't wait to tell the girls about your run-in with her."

He gave me a murderous look. "I'll tell Valla, not you! You'll exaggerate! So keep your mouth shut or I'll kick you in your MLD." He then grinned wildly. "I know you used it on the flight here. I could sense your startled response through the Force. That thing gets a _big_ reaction out of you." He put up his hands and shook them while making a startled expression. "Oh, oh, oh," he made a mocking sensual moan.

"You're so full of it," I grumbled.

He laughed even harder. "Did you get the MLD's comlink number?"

I gave Ben a punch in the shoulder. "I hate that thing."

"Is that why I saw you drink a liter of juice before we left?" He gave me a smug smile. "Promise me you'll let me tell Valla first."

I shook my head in defeat. "Fine, I won't say anything to Valla unless you ask for my input."

_Damn it! I wanted to tell this story!_


	5. Chapter 5

**_Entry 21_ **

We gave Captain Norrkin a short and inconclusive debrief. We told him we heard rumors that Sola was seen at Club _Euphoria_ , but we didn't pick up any DNA signatures in the club nor did we sense her presence through the Force at that location…which is technically the truth.

Captain Norrkin's shoulders slumped. "This is not good. The daughter of a Baron disappears and possibly swept up in the slave underground."

Ben's jaw tightened. "Captain, you do realize slavery is illegal within the Galactic Alliance. Crack down on this illegal activity and you won't have this problem."

"Jedi Skywalker, if I could stop this vile business I would, but we only have a token presence on the planet. We're here to report any situation that could endanger the security of the Galactic Alliance. I've reported the presence of sentient-trafficking to my superiors, but so far the GA has ignored the problem."

"Well then," Ben continued. "Perhaps the Baron would like to exercise a little retribution on the industry that stole his daughter by closing down the establishments within his area of control."

The Captain nodded. "I will definitely make that suggestion to him. Thank you for coming."

We stood. "I'm sorry that we couldn't help," Ben said before we walked away.

Ben and I don't like lying, but we also don't like forced arranged marriages or parents who treat their children like chattel. Besides, we didn't want to stand in the way of true love.

We flagged down an air taxi and travelled to the hotel to pick up our luggage then to the spaceport where our StealthXs were located. "I'll have to give a full report to my dad," Ben told me. "If the Baron finds out we discovered the location of his daughter and decided not to disclose that information he is going to be furious and will probably make a formal complaint to the Grand Master. Dad should be prepared for the fallout if it ever happens."

"Do you think your dad will disapprove of our decision?"

Ben shook his head. "No, she's an adult." He hesitated for a moment drawing a deep breath. "We should check on her later just in case. We want to make sure her boyfriend is really the loving and caring guy he appears to be. Having Jsaplo in the Temple undergoing treatments will make keeping tabs on her easier." He turned to me and smiled. "You can never be too careful."

.

.

**_Entry 22_ **

We rendezvoused with the _Vazy Princess_ on Sullust. After securing our StealthX's within the ship's hanger bay we met up with Valla and Zylie.

Wow, Ben was right when he said, ' _Valla will know I'm hiding something.'_ I have never seen him looking so guilty. Valla put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "What did you do?"

He took her hand and led her to their quarters. "I'll tell you in our cabin."

Once they closed their cabin door Zylie gave me a searching look. "What happened?"

"Nothing really." I gave a casual shrug of my shoulder. "I promised Ben I would let him talk to Valla before I said anything."

Zylie brought her hand up to cover a gasp. "Did something bad happen?"

I chuckled. "Not exactly bad. I mean it wasn't _spending a week in a bacta tank_ type of bad…at least not yet."

"What did he…" Zylie was cut off by the shriek coming from her sister down the corridor. We turned to see Valla exit the cabin, giggling hysterically while gesturing her sister over to her.

"Zylie you have to hear what happened."

I was relieved that Valla was obviously not upset over her husband's discomfiting adventure on Vandelhelm. As she relayed the story to her sister she looked over to me and grinned. "Talon show me the expression on Ben's face while he was getting propositioned by a Zeltron?"

I gave an overly exaggerated look of shock and fear. Valla started laughing again. Ben came out of his cabin red-faced. "I wasn't that bad, Talon."

Valla pulled Ben into a warm embrace and kissed him. "My poor baby."

"See Ben, that wasn't so bad," I said. "Besides, you two ladies are way better looking than any of the women in that topless club."

Valla's eyes went wide. "Topless?" She turned to Ben. "You didn't say anything about it being a topless club."

_Opps!_

Ben was glaring at me as I tried to keep a straight face. "He probably didn't notice, Valla, he never once looked below the neckline of any of the ladies."

"And you did?" Zylie asked me pointedly.

"Ummm…" I mumbled. "I had to look for evidence. We had a missing girl to find."

Zylie crossed her arms. "And you thought this missing girl could be hiding between some stripper's breasts?"

"No, not enough room." I said slowly. "Although, some were some big enough to suffocate a hoojib."

"Talon!" Ben groaned. "You're making matters worse."

"Ladies, ladies, I swear we were both perfect gentlemen." I pulled Zylie into my arms and kissed her. "Come on into our cabin and I will give you a full debriefing on what happened…in private." I leaned down and nibbled on her ear as I pulled her tight against my body. "I've been thinking about you during the entire flight back."

"You are just trying to distract me so I won't be upset with you."

I gave her a broad smile. "Is it working?" I ran a line of kisses down her neck.

I can tell she is becoming flustered. "Yes, it's working." She grabbed my hand and pulled me into our cabin.

I gave Ben and Valla a wave before the cabin door slid shut. "I'll see you guys in a few hours."

_It is nice being home._

Once in my cabin I stripped out of my clothing and then helped Zylie unbuckle her belt.

"You're an impatient one," she remarked with a smile.

"I missed you," I said with a feigned pout as I pulled off her tunic and threw it aside. She unzipped her pants and let them drop to the floor as I pulled back the bed covers and then quickly scooped her up in my arms and gently placed her on the bed. I snuggled under the covers and then used the Force to lower the lights with the dimmer switch. I turned to gaze at Zylie lovingly.

I truly was a lucky man. She was exquisitely beautiful with high cheekbones, a perfect nose, lovely hazel eyes and a body to die for. I leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips before I moved to her neck. Things were getting amorous when I suddenly heard a noise coming from the end of the bed. It sounded like a snort followed by a low growl. I looked down and saw two glowing red eyes glaring at me.

My head dropped to Zylie' shoulder in frustration. "How did Princess get inside the cabin?"

She untangled from my arms and looked down at her pet Vornskr. "While you were gone I let her sleep at the foot of the bed. She was probably hiding in the closet when we came in."

"That's impossible, that closet is so packed a pittin couldn't fit inside." I looked down at the glowing eyes following my every movement. "Put her outside please."

Zylie groaned. "She's being good, I don't want to get out of bed."

I gave Zylie a pleading look. "I don't like her watching us having sex."

She chuckled. "She's an animal, not a voyeur. She's not interested in our sex life."

I gave a frustrated exhalation. I don't care if the Vornskr is an animal. I don't like it watching me during intimacy. "Zylie, she won't let me put her outside, you've got to do it."

She gave me an evil grin and she began stroking me with her hands. Her fingernails teased down my back until she grabbed my buttocks. "Ignore her."

The way she was touching me made me relent. "Okay." I rolled over and straddled her as I rained a line of kisses down her neck and body. As things became more impassioned the deep growl became louder and more persistent. I finally gave up and rolled over on my back.

"What's wrong?"

"I am pretty sure if I get you screaming passionately that animal will bite off parts of my body. Besides, she's a libido killer." I pointed down to my lap to stress the point. "Look! My Force Pike has become a Shoto!"

"Force Pike," Zylie laughed. "I love your colorful metaphors."

"Forget about this." I groused as I rolled over my side facing away from Zylie. "I guess I'll just take a nap."

That got Zylie moving. "Oh no you don't." She quickly jumped out of bed and threw on a bathrobe. She then grabbed Princess by her collar and pulled her to the door and pushed her outside. She locked the door and then turned to me as she let the robe drop off her shoulder. "No more excuses Jedi. Whip out that Force Pike and prepare to battle. En garde."

I chuckled. I guess she missed me just as much as I missed her.

An hour later Zylie and I lay in a tangle of bedsheets, our bodies cooling from our lovemaking. She rolled over to tease a hand down my chest. "I'm still upset that you were at a topless brothel."

I grimaced. "It's not like I planned on going there. And believe me, it wasn't something I would care to visit again."

"And why is that?"

"Because the women there are treated with disrespect. The things I sensed through the Force were disturbing…hedonistic. This wasn't about making love; these men were demeaning and humiliating women for their sexual gratification. The place was full of petty little men with little or no control over their own lives, so they pay to abuse and subjugate others. It makes them feel dominant, if only for a moment." I pulled in a deep breath before continuing. "I don't want to be around that type of environment. I didn't enjoy being there and I know Ben was horrified." I leaned over to kiss her passionately, then pulled back and smiled. "I don't want somebody I can dominant…I want an equal. I want mutual respect and love. That's what I have with you. You are the only woman I desire." I gave her a heated gaze. "I would like to make love to you again."

She reached her hands behind my head and pulled me toward her lips. "Do you now?"

"Oh yes." I leaned down and kissed her gently before we started round two of getting reacquainted.

.

.

**_Entry 23_ **

After a long, sensual reunion with my beautiful wife we finally left the cabin to get a snack. Ben and Valla were already in the kitchen, sitting at the dining table, sipping juice and eating some sort of pastries conjured up by the food synthesizer.

"It's about time you two finished," Valla said with a chuckle. "Princess was outside your door the entire time growling and pacing in circles."

"Yeah, yeah." I blushed furiously. I really didn't need everybody on the ship knowing our business. "Where to now?" I asked changing the subject.

We all looked to Valla who, as second in charge of Karrde's corporation, was in control of setting up our trade assignments. "We have a five days before we need to be on Corellia. The trip will take a little over a day, so if you want to visit the sights on Sullust we could."

I pulled my small datapad out of my pocket and pulled up tourist attractions on Sullust. "We can visit the Slime Sea know for its…slime. Or we can do the LavaRide where we are put into transparent, heat-resistant bubble and dropped into an active volcano." Both women gave me a disapproving look. I turned to Ben and Valla. "We have to travel pass Indupar on the way back to Corellia. Do we have time to see my family?"

Ben smiled. "Good idea. I would love to see your parents."

"And my son," I added offhandedly.

"Son!" Valla looked at me confused. "You have a son?"

I regarded at her in stunned disbelief. I turned to Ben. "You didn't tell her?"

He shook his head. "You swore me to secrecy."

I turned to Zylie. "And you didn't tell your sister?"

"No," she said adamantly. "You made me promise to keep it a secret."

I was thoroughly impressed. I just assumed Ben would tell his wife and Zylie…well I thought she didn't keep secrets from her sister.

"How _old_ is this son?" Valla asked forcefully.

I know if I said anything less than five years (the time I have been with Zylie) she would put the ship into orbit and shoot me out the airlock. "He's eleven…almost twelve years old."

Valla visibly relaxed. "Why did you keep this a secret?"

"That's a very long and complicated story," I said.

"We have plenty of time." Valla looked at me expectantly.

"Okay." I slid into one of the seats at the table and took a long cleaning breath. "Twelve years ago, I was a nineteen-year-old Jedi Apprentice. Ben had just been knighted when we were given an assignment to act as security for Queen Kaie and her twin sister Ema Aiti from the Indupar Crown Worlds. The Queen was two weeks pregnant when her husband, the King, died and she feared an assassination attempt. So, they fled to Coruscant and requested protection from the Jedi." I hesitated and looked over to Zylie to see if this was upsetting her. She was sitting next to me, nibbling on a pastry and looking completely unaffected by my tale. I steeled my nerve and continued. "I had a brief fling with Ema. When the two women returned to Indupar I didn't know Ema was pregnant. When she got back to Indupar she broke up with me and didn't let me know about the baby."

"If you know about the child now, why the secrecy?" Valla asked.

"That's the complicated part. The Queen miscarried on the trip back. Since her and Ema were identical twins, they decided to switch places until the birth of my child. That is the reason for the secrecy."

Valla looked at me confused. "What?"

I sighed. "Prince Marcus of Indupar is my son. He is not the rightful heir to the throne and until he is crowned as King next year, we have to be careful to keep his paternity a secret."

She looked at me dumbfounded. "Your son is the Prince of Indupar?" She looked at Ben questioningly. "Is he serious?"

He nodded. "Why do you think Talon's parents have been on the planet? Talon's dad is training his grandson."

Valla pinched the bridge of her nose. "Your son is a Prince, Jacen's daughter is a Princess and Jaina's son will one day be Emperor." She looked over to Ben. "What happened to your family? No royalty?"

Ben beamed at his wife. "You will always be my Princess."

Valla closed her eyes and chuckled. "Please find another royal title for me—one that is not the name for our pet Vornskr."

"How about the Queen of my heart?"

Valla rolled her eyes. "You are a hopeless romantic." She turned to me. "Let's go to Indupar. I really want to meet your son."


	6. Chapter 6

**_Entry 24_ **

We docked our ship at the capital city of Indupar and were met at the port by my mother. She was smiling and waving her arms all excitedly in the pedestrian debarkation waiting zone. I don't know why she does that (and she always does that). She's the only person within twenty meters of the ship, it's not like we are going to overlook her if she didn't bounce up and down like to an excited game show contestant.

I turned to the group. "Remember, unless we are in Marcus' private offices or quarters he should be addressed as Your Highness." I looked to Valla for emphasis.

"I won't forget," Valla promised.

We powered down and lower the ramp. I was the first one out and was practically bowled over by my mom who ran up and gave me a huge hug while crying, "I missed my baby."

I really hate it when she calls me her _'baby'_. That always gets Ben snickering.

Mom gave me a kiss on the cheek before she pulled away and gave Zylie a hug and then greeted Valla and Ben just as enthusiastically.

It's nice to see my mother so happy. When my parents sold their restaurant I thought Mom would get depressed and bored, but that doesn't appear to be the case. She actually looks ten years younger. I think losing the stress of running a restaurant has made her much more relaxed and carefree. She is in her sixties but other than some laugh lines around her eyes and greying at the temples of her dark brown hair she looks just like she did when I was a teen.

I searched for my father. "Where's dad?"

"He and Prince Marcus are busy. They asked me to bring you to them."

We locked up the ship, grabbed our luggage and followed my mother to a small shuttle that transported us to the palace. My mom then led us to the back portion of the castle that overlooked the large parade grounds. In the distance we could hear the sound of a military band playing and the shouts of marching orders. We exited onto a large balcony where I saw my father and son in similar dress blue uniforms observing the parade grounds below. Dad was still dying his hair and beard red, but I noticed he was either adding grey streaks into his hair or it was naturally greying and the dye he used did little to hide the fact.

Marcus has grown taller since I last saw him. He was now the same height as Uncle Luke and had the same blond hair and blue eyes. I was taken aback by how much the boy looked like me when I was his age. Of course, that was the reason I've been actively discouraged from visiting my son as often as I would like…at least until his coronation. We definitely have a strong family resemblance.

My dad turned and smiled broadly upon seeing us. "Come on over," he called out while motioning us to the balcony's stone balustrade. My dad pulled me into a hug as I drew closer while my son gave me a small smile and nod of his head acknowledging my presence. I looked over the terrace railing and was overwhelmed by the grandeur of the military formation below. There was at least of division of Indupar Army troopers in combat uniform and armor conducting a pass-and-review while a military band played marching music to keep them in step.

I looked over to my father. "That's a huge military parade. What's the occasion?"

My father leaned closer to me so he could be heard over the raucous music. "It is just a dress rehearsal for the coronation festivities that will occur in a few months. This is only a small percentage of the expected parade participants. We will have dozens and dozens of battalions from military bases throughout the Crown Worlds attending."

"Wow." I was awestruck by the pomp and ceremony designed to honor my son's crowning.

"That's enough for now," I heard Marcus tell a highly decorated military officer standing by his side. "I am extremely impressed with the men. Please tell your commanders I am very pleased."

The officer brought his right hand, clenched in a fist, over his heart and made a bowing motion with his head. "Thank you, Your Highness."

Prince Marcus turned and ushered us off the balcony. "Please, let's go to my chambers, where we can talk in private." He took a couple steps into the corridor when he realized he didn't know all in our group. "I'm sorry. We haven't officially met." He offered Valla his hand in greeting. "I am Prince Marcus of the Indupar Crown Worlds." He looked at Ben and back to Valla. "And unless I am mistaken, you are Jedi Skywalker's beautiful bride, Valla."

I chuckled when I noticed Valla was flustered. "Yes, Your Highness."

He smiled brightly as he brought her hand up to his lips for a quick kiss. "I can see the resemblance between you and Zylie. Obviously great beauty runs in your family."

I stifled a groan. Who is teaching him these sappy lines?

"Please let me show you around. Everybody else has been to the palace previously." He beckoned for us to follow him down the marble passageway. He brought us to his training area where my father taught him how to use a lightsaber. "Here is where Master Tantiss trains me in the way of the Force and how to handle weapons." We stood there long enough for Valla to get a look inside before continuing down the hall. "Over here is our library." He pointed through the open doorway but continued after a brief pause. "There is a ballroom, and a number of staterooms in this corridor." He motioned to a closed door to his right. "In there is the Royal Harem."

I wasn't paying much attention until I heard that. "A Royal Harem?" I choked out in disbelief.

My son turned and gave me an innocuous expression. "One must have a place for the Royal concubines to congregate."

I looked at him speechless. I quickly turned and flung the door open…only to find a large storage closet. I could hear my son and dad laughing boisterously.

"Jedi Tantiss. I'm surprised that you are looking for the Royal Harem," my son managed to say between bouts of laughter. "You're a married man."

I groaned as my face heated up. "That was a good joke Your Highness."

A wide grin crossed his face. "Made you look."

"I told you he'd fall for that." I heard my father chuckle as he gave Marcus as friendly slap on the back.

I can't believe an eleven-year-old duped me. I can see my father's influence on my son already. He's becoming a practical joker.

We continued down the large ornate corridor until we came to Marcus' private quarters. After we secured the doors behind us my son turned and gave me a big hug. "Its good to see you father." After a few seconds we broke contact and he greeted Ben, Valla and Zylie in a more informal manner with hugs. "I'm glad you can stop by." He led us to a sitting area and motioned for us to be seated as he lowered himself into a large cushioned settee. "What brings you to my small corner of the Galaxy?"

I sat down on a couch next to Zylie. "We were on Sullust and have a few days to spare before the next shipment run."

Marcus nodded. "And how are you doing as roving Jedi?"

"Good," I said. "We were assigned to search for a missing girl on Vandelhelm. She's the daughter of a Baron."

My son nodded. "It is nice that you found her."

Ben and I looked at each other wondering how he would know that.

"We never said we found her," Ben pointed out to Marcus.

He winced before a guilty look crossed his face. His gaze traversed to my parents sitting diagonally from him before he looked down to the floor. "My mistake. I assumed you would continue your search until she was found."

I shook my head in frustration. "More likely your creepy Seers have been keeping tabs on me." I have never liked the H'drachi Seers who lived within the royal palace. They are soothsayers that use the Force to peer into something they call the _time stream_. It is believed they can see the galaxy's various possible futures. Since the future is always in motion, they can never positively know which future would come to fruition, but their prognostications have been fairly accurate so far.

I saw my father tense when I made a disparaging comment about the seers, but Marcus remained relaxed. "Dad, I must remind you I have been training with the seers for a couple years now and I am well on my way to becoming one of those _creepy Seers_."

"So, were **_you_** keeping tabs on me?" My voice raised a notch. I really didn't like the idea of my son spying on my possible futures.

He averted his eyes, appearing very uncomfortable. "I occasionally take a peek." He looked over to my parents. "My grandparents worry about you."

My mother blushed profusely. "Don't blame him. I sometimes ask him to consult the time stream and see if any of your futures hold danger." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Your brother Jaden and his family are safe on Coruscant. As Jedi Healers it is unlikely that they will face danger, but you two…" She motioned toward Ben and me. "You two are Jedi warriors. I can't help but worry."

I gritted my teeth, but I really couldn't blame my mother for fretting over me. That's her job as a parent. "I still don't like it, but…I understand."

The tension drained out from Marcus' posture. "Dad, I want to reassure you…" he hesitated with a blush as he squirmed in his seat. "I um…I want to assure you that I _always_ safeguard your privacy…you and Zylie's. If…ahh…umm…if that's your concern."

As soon as I grasped what he was saying I blanched. Could my son and those voyeuristic seers view my most private moments?

_Force! Could they have watched my reunion between Zylie and me in the last few days?_

I know I was staring at Marcus slack jawed, horrified at the thought of what the seers might see. "I wasn't concerned about it before, _but I am now_!" I said heatedly.

Marcus' face burned red. "Please father, believe me when I say, seeing my father and stepmother having…doing stuff is the last thing a child wants to see." He dropped his head in his hands. "Please, can we change the subject to one less disturbing." He quickly stood as his gaze fell over the group.

I could see my father biting his lower lip in an effort to contain his laughter. My mother appeared embarrassed. Zylie was wide-eyed while her sister and Ben were doing their best not to snicker.

Marcus pulled out a comlink and talked to somebody quickly. "Why don't I get everybody settled into their rooms and we can meet up for lunch." He took a deep calming breath. "The guard outside will guide your to your chambers and I'll have a porter bring any luggage from the shuttle to your quarters."

"Sure," I mumbled as I stood. That sounded good to me. Marcus was right, this entire conversation was way too disturbing.

 

**.**

**.**

**_Entry 25_ **

As the palace attendant guided us to our room I could tell Zylie was upset over the conversation with my son. I just hoped we could get into our quarters before she said something that could possibly compromise my son's claim to the throne.

The middle-aged, graying attendant stopped in front of a large door and waved a key fob in front of a sensor. We could hear the locking mechanism click prior to him opening the door and ushering us inside. "Here are your key fobs." He handed us the keyless electronic entry devices. "A porter will be along with your luggage."

"Thank you." Zylie started digging into her pocket for a credit chip for a tip. The attendant obviously knew what she was doing and raised a hand in a halting motion. "Guests do not tip within the palace." He gave Zylie a warm smile. "We are well paid within the royal court."

As soon as the doors closed she turned to me wide-eyed. "Do you think he spies on us!?" She didn't look mad as much as embarrassed at the prospect.

"No, at least not at our private lives. I think he may look when I am on missions, not when I'm home with you," I reassured her. "Besides, he wasn't lying when he said watching us together was the last thing he wanted to see." I chuckled. "I could feel his embarrassment reverberate through the Force."

"Maybe he doesn't want to see you, but how do I know he's not scrutinizing the time stream now to observe any long showers I might take in the future?"

I had to laugh. "If the kid harbored any adolescent voyeuristic fantasies, I'm sure he'd pick someone else to fulfill that particular craving."

Zylie scowled at me as she put her hands on her hips. "What is that supposed to mean? I'm too old and ugly to be the object of a pre-teen male's fantasy?"

Oh great! I have fallen into one of those conversations where nothing I say is right. I wrapped Zylie into my arms and kissed the top of her head warmly. "Honey, you're beautiful. I just meant that Marcus would probably have a crush on young Holo-starlets like Nina Swifthawk who, at fifteen, is much closer to his age. I hate to tell you, but to him we are as ancient as my Uncle Han." I leaned down and nibbled on her ear. "Maybe I can get him to teach me to be a seer and then I can look in on your long, hot future showers."

She reached her arms around my neck and gazed up at me with a smirk. "You don't need to do that, you can just join me in the 'fresher."

I grinned. "Maybe after lunch we can freshen up from our long journey."

Her hazel eyes flashed with mischief. "That sounds wonderful Jedi Tantiss."

.

.

**_ENTRY 26_ **

We ate lunch in a small dining area off of Marcus' private quarters. He told me the room was secure and private so we should feel free to talk.

My parents were there, along with, Ben and Valla. I noticed the queen and her sister Ema didn't show up. Whenever Zylie accompanied me on these visits the two women limited their interactions with me. I guess they thought my ex-lover being in the same room as my wife would be uncomfortable…and they're probably right.

Mom was talking to Zylie and Valla about them going on a girl's night out. I choked on my drink as I remembered the night of Anakin Solo's bachelor party. A group of us discovered the location of Tahiri's bachelorette party and decided to crash it…only to discover that not only were the young women from the Jedi Academy in attendance, but also our mothers! And it was male revue night! Seeing my mom, Mara, Leia and Mirax Horn all screaming for a particular dancer to ' _Take it off'_ scarred me for life. Okay, maybe I'm being a little overly dramatic, but it was a disturbing sight for a teenage boy.

"I hope you're not bringing them to some place risqué," I joked with my mother.

She glanced over and gave me her most innocent look. "Risqué? No, I'm still cataloging the digital holos from Zylie and Valla's bachelorette party. Now that was risqué."

"What?!" Ben and I both cried out simultaneously. I looked over to Zylie and Valla who bushed deeply. "What did you all do?"

My mother laughed and waved me off. "All the ladies went out and saw the troop called, _The Galaxy Men_."

"They claim to have the best male dancers from every humanoid species," Zylie explained while trying to contain a smirk.

Valla laughed. "But we didn't realized that _Humanoid_ included species like Duros and Wookiees."

"That Wookiee could dance." Zylie admitted. "But that Zabrak was amazing."

"Oh, yeah, amazing," my mother agreed with a grin.

"Hey," my dad protested with a pout.

My mother turned and kissed him. "You have nothing to worry about, honey. Nobody can ' _Do the Tantiss'_ better than you." My dad blushed deeply. I decided not to ask what she meant by that; I probably don't want to know.

I dragged my hand through my hair in frustration. "Mom, dad, can we not talk about this topic around an eleven-year-old boy?"

My dad scoffed. "You mean the eleven-year-old that had you convinced he had a harem full of concubines?"

Marcus muffled a laugh with his hand trying to pass it off as a cough.

Mom shrugged. "You're the one who brought it up, but to answer your question, our ladies night out will be to a spa."

My dad grinned. "Don't worry, us guys can do something together." He looked over to Marcus. "We like going to the shooting range, the pool or the gym, whatever you like."

"The gym," Ben chimed in. "I miss going to the gym."

"The gym it is." Dad said before he started bragging about Marcus' training like the proud grandfather that he is. "He's only been training for a couple years and already he is as good as some of Luke's fourth or fifth year students! It would be interesting to see how he would do against Jedi Academy students his age."

"Maybe we can have Marcus visit the academy," Ben offered.

"I would like that," Marcus said as serving droids delivered our food. He looked over to Ben questioningly. "There is something I would like to discuss with you about the Jedi Academy, Jedi Skywalker."

"Ben, just call me Ben. We're family."

Marcus smiled bashfully. "Sorry. You told me that last time you were here. Ben, I would like your opinion about Jedi Knights."

"Which is?"

"I'm thinking about establishing my own version of Jedi Knights here on Indupar," he announced.

Ben and I looked at each other before returning our gaze to my son. "Why is that?"

"The Empire has the Imperial Knights. Hapes has the Hapan Knights. The Galactic Alliance has the Jedi Knights. Indupar is not affiliated with any of these governments. Shouldn't they have their own Force-strong fighting corps?"

Ben shrugged. "I'm sure if there was a need for Jedi my father would send Knights to assist Indupar."

Marcus made a face. "The Jedi Knights come under the command of the Galactic Alliance. What if the Alliance refuses to help or we're attacked by the Alliance? What then?"

I felt a cold chill run down my spine. Every time Marcus says, _'what if'_ I am reminded that he is a Seer and might actually have seen the events in the time stream. Was he now simply spouting paranoid conjecture or prognosticating a possible future? "Why would you think the Galactic Alliance would ever attack Indupar?"

My son's expression grew solemn. "Governments go to war to forcefully acquire the possessions of others. Indupar and Ec Pand are fertile planets with extensive natural resources." He hesitated for a moment before continuing with a hushed voice. "And the planets Jabor and Medth wish to join the Indupar Crown Worlds. They are not part of the Galactic Alliance, but I don't know how your chief-of-state will react to more worlds coming under my control."

"Oh," I murmured. I wasn't sure if this would cause a reaction from the Alliance or not. "Why do they want to become part of the Crown Worlds?"

Marcus smiled. "Because the Crown worlds have an awesome ruler." He chuckled at his own joke, but then blushed when nobody laughed. "Seriously, it's because the Crown Worlds have a very low rate of poverty and government programs to help educate the population and assist entrepreneurs set up businesses. The small unorganized governments of those two planets are more than willing to give up leadership in exchange for a civilized and profitable society."

As my son spoke I had to remind myself he was only a child, he sounded so much older and articulate for a boy his age. My father claims Marcus spends most of his days in training and tutoring. He was raised to be king since birth.

Ben shook his head at Marcus' words. "I doubt the Alliance would attack Indupar to stop you from annexing planets into your kingdom. Hapes has sixty-three worlds under Tenel Ka's rule and the Chief-of-State hasn't made a move against her."

"But the Hapes Consortium is aligned with the Galactic Alliance," Marcus pointed out.

"I certainly wouldn't support the government if they tried to interfere with your sovereignty," I assured my son. "I would stand by you and my father."

Marcus smiled warmly. "I know you would." He turned to Ben. "How do you think the Grand Master would react to me starting my own group of knights?"

Ben shrugged. "He didn't appear concerned that the Empire and Hapes has their own version. As long as all groups adhere to similar tenets to do no evil and stay on the light side of the Force, he shouldn't have a problem with it."

"Good," Marcus took a bite out of his steak. He waited until he swallowed the meat before continuing. "I have a few prospects for training. Maybe the next time you're here I'll have some young students to spar with."

With that comment I began to relax. I have a feeling Marcus' desire to start a Jedi training academy had less to do with a foreseeable threat to him and Indupar, and more about wanting young people around him in the palace-young people whom he could trust. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen any younglings in the palace other than Marcus. I'm sure there are some sons and daughters of servants within the grounds, but they must stay out of the areas Marcus frequents.

He must be a very lonely boy.

The conversation during the remainder of the meal consisted of family talk and plans for a big surprise party for Ben's parents for their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary next year. I don't know if it is possible to surprise two Jedi Masters, but my mother is determined to do so.

Maybe she can pull it off with a lot of stealth and ysalamiri.

.

.

**_Entry 27_ **

After lunch my mom took Zylie and Valla out shopping and then to the spa. Ben and I went to the gym with my father and Marcus. I miss going to the gym. Ben and I have a makeshift workout area on the _Vazy Princess_ with a pull-up bar, suspension straps and elastic resistance bands that allow us to use our own body weight for strength training. We also do a series of plyometric exercises to build our cardio endurance. It is an effective workout regimen, but I still prefer free weights.

My dad was grinning as he piled weights onto the bench press bar. "I bet Marcus can outshine you two now." He smirked as he glanced over to my son. "While you two have been drifting around in space, Prince Marcus and I have been having a spirited bench press competition." He gave me a wink. "He can almost out-lift me."

I looked over to my young son. He was eleven years old but was as tall as an average sized man and his tight compression shirt outlined his growing muscles. Despite my father's claim, I really doubt any of us could get close to bench-pressing more than my father, especially Marcus. Dad might be getting up in age, but he was genetically altered to be a muscular giant and age has not changed that fact at all.

"Should we start at one-hundred kilos?" My dad slipped another plate on the bar and then locked down the safety collars.

My son slid onto the bench without hesitation and prepared to lift as my dad stood behind the bench to spot.

"Isn't that a bit much for a boy?" Ben asked sounding worried.

Marcus made a derisive snort before he lifted the bar with ease and completed fifteen repetitions. My dad gave me a smug/proud look as my son set the bar back down on the rack. Marcus sat up and had an identical facial expression as my father. I have to admit I was impressed. Ben and I could do one hundred kilograms effortlessly enough, but usually prepubescent children don't build muscle mass easily.

That got me wondering if Marcus had hit puberty already. I know I underwent the uncomfortable transformation starting at eleven or twelve. I will always remember that awful day when my mother came into my room to wake me up only to discover that I had tented my sheets. I woke from a deep sleep, looked down and realizing what happened I spun onto my stomach in a painful attempt to hide my embarrassing pubescent development. Mom quickly exited my room and she must have immediately informed my father because soon after that horribly awkward moment my dad entered my room to give me _'the talk'_.

Dad is a trained soldier and Jedi who stared down death more than once during combat missions, but on that day he was all nervous and fidgety. In all honesty, it looked like he was going to have an aneurism. He was all flushed and sweaty as he started to mumble something about explaining how babies are made. That was the last thing I wanted to hear from my father. He looked extremely relieved when I told him I learned about sex in school. I bet he still thinks I meant in a classroom environment. HA! (Valin had smuggled some of his granddad's skin-holozines into the Temple).

I remember my dad had chuckled and said, "Good, because I would probably have wimped out and simply explained my conception. ' _When an evil dark Jedi falls in love with some genetic material from a disembodied hand of another Force-user, they get together in a cloning tube and make a baby clone'.'_ '

Stang! I hope I don't have to give Marcus ' _the talk'_. I would assume his stepfather or his tutors would explain the facts of life to him. I really don't want to be the one to discuss the benefits of abstinence and waiting until one is in a committed relationship before having sex…especially since he probably did a holonet search on my name and knows all of the racy and mostly false sexual rumors about me.

I was pulled out of my musings when Ben punched me in the shoulder. "You're zoning out on me." He motioned to the weightlifting bench. "Your dad added another hundred kilos and wants to see if you can lift it."

I grimaced. That was about twenty kilos above my best press. I think my father knew it because he went and laid down on the bench and asked me to spot him. I sighed knowing my dad could always out-lift me. This was going to be a painful workout.

When I finally dragged myself to my bedroom later that day I felt like I had been trampled by a herd of banthas. I promised myself that my next outing would be to the spa for a therapeutic massage. Girl's night out sounds much more relaxing than guy's night out.


	7. Chapter 7

**_ENTRY 28_ **

I wanted to shower and fall into bed, but I knew if I did I'd wake up as stiff as a board. Instead I spent the next hour doing Echani stretching exercises in an effort to prevent the cramping of my overexerted muscles. I always found the Echani system of stretching far superior to anything else taught at the Temple. The Echani were near-humans from the planet Eshan. They were a warrior race that considered unarmed combat as an art form and a means of self-expression. There are few Echani Masters around, but I did learn the stretching exercises from an old instructional holovid.

While I was doing my stretches Zylie returned from her _'girls' night out' looking_ happy and relaxed. She was carrying some shopping bags and I assumed her and Valla probably spent most of this month's trading profits.

She smiled when she saw me doing the plow'i pose which is where I lay on my back with my arms at my side and then lift my feet off the floor and bring them back in an 180 degree angle over my head until my toes touch the ground. The end result is I am bent in half with my butt pointed at the ceiling. She put down her shopping bags and took the opportunity to grab my buttocks and make some suggestive remarks.

I flip back over so I was lying prone on the ground, still tired from my workout. She sat down next to me and smirked. "Did your elderly father beat you and Ben in every event in the gym?"

I rolled over to my side. "No, Ben can outdo us all when it comes to pull-ups, I beat everybody in the rope-battling exercises and Marcus is a champion wind sprinter." I hesitated and gave her a sheepish look. "But with just about everything else dad surpassed us. Did you have fun with mom and Valla?"

She gave me a devastating smile. "It was fabulous. Your mom knows all the great places to shop and the spa was wonderful. You're mom likes going there because they also do pedi and manicures, but I found out that if we just wanted to have a massage we could have stayed right here at the palace. She told me the Palace has a number of masseuses and masseurs available to guests. She said your father partakes in deep muscle massages and the masseuse comes right to his quarters."

I chuckled. I had a hard time picturing my father as the massage type. "I may avail myself to that service. I haven't been this sore in a long time."

"My poor baby." She leaned down and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips and then pulled back with a grimace. "Eww…you need a shower." She stood and went to the 'fresher. "I'll run us a nice hot bubble bath. I need to wash off the massage oils from the spa. I smell like a wide assortment of organic flowers. It is supposed to be holistic and give off a euphoric aroma, but I think it smells like bad aftershave."

I finished up my stretching routine and then joined Zylie. The Palace 'freshers are huge with walk-in tubs big enough to hold six people if one was so inclined. Zylie was already in the bath with her elbows propped up on an interior shelf and her legs floating out in front of her. Through the bubbles I could get a tantalizing peak at her gorgeous body. I quickly shrugged off my gym clothes and joined her.

"I could get used to living like this." She moved her foot out to touch my leg from where I sat across from her.

That comment encouraged me to bring up a subject that I was reluctant to discuss earlier. "When Marcus is crowned it may be possible to stay here. He said once he's king it would be near impossible to oust him, even if his paternity is discovered." I moved across the large tub until I sat next to Zylie, my body pressing against hers. "Would you like to settle down on Indupar and live? I could get a job organizing and training the Indupar Knights…or whatever he decides to call them."

Deep down I was hoping she would say yes, but at the same time I knew it meant giving up her position in the family business. It would also necessitate me leaving the Jedi, just as my father did years ago.

Her eyebrows rose in surprise. "You'd leave the Jedi Knights?"

"Yes," I said after a short pause. "It's not like I am turning to the darkside and becoming Sith. I would be joining another group of Knights. The bad thing is I really doubt Ben would leave the Jedi to join us. You would be away from your sister and leave her with the duties of running the family business."

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "It's tempting, but no…not now." Zylie gave me an apologetic look. "Our parents spent so much money on that freighter just so we could stay together. I don't want to abandon my sister and my family business right when we expanded." She put her hand on my chest and gazed into my eyes. "I know how much your son means to you. Maybe we can work out a compromise. You can spend time with him while Valla and I do trade runs."

I shook my head. "I don't want to be away from you." I reached around her waist and pulled her closer to me. "Hey, this is not something we have to decide now. Maybe sometime in the future settling down on a planet is something we can consider…when we have kids of our own."

I could feel her shock through the Force. "You're thinking of children already? I thought having a son might put that issue on the back burner."

I nuzzled her neck. "I love my son, but I want children with you Zylie." A disturbing thought hit me and I pulled away to look into her eyes. "You do want kids…don't you?" I held my breath waiting for her answer while I mentally kicked myself for never seriously discussing this subject with her earlier.

"Of course I do." She leaned in and kissed my lips gently. "I always knew how much family meant to you. You're a big softly like your father."

I smiled at the compliment. My father is the ultimate family man. It didn't surprise me at all when he came to Indupar to help train his grandson. "I'm not saying I want to have kids right now, but a couple years down the line…I would like to have the conversation."

She smirked. "Until then can we practice the baby making process?"

I slow sensual smile split my face. "Oh, I would like that."

_And I did!_

There's an old saying, ' _Perfection comes with practice_.' We did a lot of practicing that night. When it's time to make children I'll be ready.

.

.

**_Entry 29_ **

Marcus wanted to show off his Jedi fighting skills so the next day he arranged for everybody to watch one of his training sessions. We all took seats in the observation bleachers of the training room where Marcus would spar with my father. He wanted to use the real lightsabers, but Zylie said she would be too nervous to watch if he did...so he grudgingly agreed to utilize the practice weapons.

My dad and son were both wearing loosing fitting sweatpants and tight compression shirts. They faced each other on the padded floor of the sparring chamber with deactivated practice lightsabers held loosely in hand. My father quickly ignited his saber and made a high arcing swing targeting the top of Marcus' head. I shivered as I remembered the first time I saw that move. I was on my first Jedi combat mission with my father when he cleaved a terrorist in half—head to groin—with one swipe of his lightsaber. Of course this wouldn't happen with a practice saber, but a strike to the head would hurt immensely and give Marcus a wicked headache for days. Fortunately, the boy activated the bluish blade of his practice saber and blocked my father's attack before parrying with a strike of his own.

As they fenced it was apparent that my dad had a distinct advantage when it came to height and reach. Marcus was very tall for his age, standing over 1.7 meters in height, but he was dwarfed by my father's 2.15-meter stature. My dad easily had a twenty-centimeter reach advantage over my son. Still, I must say I was thoroughly impressed with my boy's performance. He had been studying with my father for a little over two years but he fought like a fourth year Jedi apprentice. After about fifteen minutes of sparing my father signaled for a cease of hostilities. They put away the sabers and I thought the performance was over, but they had only just begun. My dad looked at me and said, "Let me show you what we have learned from the Teräs Käsi trainer."

I knew they had brought in a martial arts champion from Corellia to train them in the art of Teräs Käsi, which translates to _Steel Hands_ in Basic. It is an unarmed, hand-to-hand combat discipline. The two donned gloves to cushion the knuckles, a padded helmet, along with foot, chest and groin protection. As my giant of a father circled around my son I started to get nervous. Practice sabers were one thing, but there is no way my much smaller son could match my father's brute strength.

The two stood across from each other and then without a spoken command they moved into a fighting stance. My dad attacked first, moving faster than I thought possible for an old man. He threw a right jab at my son's head which Marcus deflected with an open hand block and then followed up with a spinning back fist that my father narrowly avoided. The two exchanged a number of kicks and punches making Zylie and Valla cringe at every attack. My son had a flair for the spinning kicks with half or full body rotation. My father, with his height advantage liked to target Marcus' head either with a crescent or hook kick. Most of their unarmed attacks were avoided but a few landed true and only the padding of the combatants' protective gear prevented serious injury.

My father let loose a combination of kicks that drove Marcus back leaving the boy out of breath and flushed from exertion. He then performed a powerful roundhouse kick aimed at my son's head. The boy quickly ducked down low and got in as close as possible to my dad, avoiding the kick and taking away his reach advantage. My dad bent over to grab Marcus, but before he could get his hands on him Marcus slammed his fist into my dad's padded groin protection…hard.

"Ohhh," I groaned and both Ben and I instinctively brought our hands over our crotches in a subconscious gesture of commiseration. That had to hurt.

Marcus scurried away and circled around to attack my father from behind, but it wasn't necessary. My dad was already on his knees, cradling his groin in his hands while he tried to catch his breath. "I hate it when you do that." He managed to croak out.

Marcus went over to my dad and helped him onto his feet. "You're the one who told me that I would have to get close, attack quickly and hit hard in order to beat a larger opponent."

My dad took a couple deep breaths. "I didn't say to punch me in the family jewels every time."

"If you know I'm going there, I would think you would protect yourself better." Marcus turned to an aide standing in the corner of the room. "Get some ice for Master Tantiss." The man gave a quick nod and ran to a first aid kit and returned with a chemical ice bag. He activated it and handed it to my father who shoved it down his trousers.

"Aren't you wearing a cup?" Marcus asked looking concerned and guilty over hurting his grandfather.

"Yes," my dad said through clenched teeth. "But during all those kicks it shifted and when you punched me…things got pinched."

Marcus' eyes went wide and he brought a hand up covering his mouth. I wasn't sure if he was masking a gasp of horror or a chuckle at my father's misfortune. "Sorry."

"I'm getting too old for this. Why don't you fight Talon or Ben?"

"No thanks," I said quickly. "I'm still in the Honeymoon phase of my marriage and I don't need anything pinched off." That comment got a chuckle from Ben and the ladies.

Valla reached over and kissed Ben. "I concur. I think the Grand Master would like grandchildren in the future."

Ben blushed but remained silent. I am sure Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara will soon start nagging Ben about grandkids. Ha!

My mother ran up to my father and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Come to our quarters. I think I have something to make you feel better."

I gave an involuntary shudder. I sure hope mom is talking about a bacta patch, but by the besotted grin on my father's face I doubt that's what she had in mind. Zylie leaned into my side and whispered in my ear. "I hope we are that much in love when we are their age." That put a smile on my face.

"I hope so too," I said softly before giving her a gentle kiss on the lips.

"Oh stop it," Marcus complained. "It's bad enough that I have to watch your parents act like that all the time."

I chuckled. "One day you'll find a girl and it'll be your mother admonishing you for your public displays of affection."

The Prince removed his helmet and gave me a sad smile. "I have to find a girl first. The Queen keeps me on a tight leash. I sometimes fantasize about changing into commoner's clothing and sneaking out of the palace to play with regular children."

I shook my head. "Don't do that. You'll give your mother a heart attack."

He pulled off his gloves and protective gear and threw them on the ground. An aide in a blue palace uniform ran up and retrieved the gear almost immediately. Marcus sighed deeply. "Right now security on me is high. When I become King I won't be able to go to the 'fresher without a royal escort."

I laughed at the imagery. "Hopefully it won't be that bad."

"Yeah," Marcus said sarcastically. "We can all hope." He looked down at his sweat-drenched shirt. "I need to clean up. If you need anything just ask any guard or porter, they will be able to assist you." He turned to Valla and Zylie and gave them a slight bow. "Ladies." He then spun on a heel and walked out of the training room with guards following in step behind him.

I never thought I would feel sorry for a pampered prince, but I do. I wouldn't want people following me around all my life.

Maybe when he becomes king things won't be as bad as he imagined…maybe.

.

.

**_Entry 30_ **

On my last full day on Indupar I was able to find some time alone with my son. We were in his private quarters, sitting on low divans, and drinking fizz-sodas after his day of instruction. I was tired. I spent most of the day following my son around as he attended various classes and training sessions. His curriculum is exhausting and I grew weary just watching him. In the morning he had the standard educational program of reading, writing, arithmetic, history and science. On top of that he was tutored in civics, politics and things that would be of importance when he became King. He also had physical education and Force training.

What was most surprising was his religious education. He was being taught the dogma of the prevalent religion of the planet called _The Bright Path_. It's a monotheistic religion whose edicts are _do no evil, purge yourself of desire, stay pure of heart and service to all sentients_. It appears to be a fairly innocuous religion. Marcus says their God is simply the Force guised in an omnipotent sentient form. As King he might be asked to perform certain rituals for blessings and perhaps weddings, so he needed to become acquainted with its tenets.

As I finished my fizz drink I noticed Marcus was gazing at me with a quiet intensity that I always found unnerving coming from a child. It's downright eerie sometimes. I believe his precocious behavior is not the result of any Force ability, but instead it stems from his royal upbringing. I have seen the same sage expression on the faces of Jacen's daughter, Allana, and Jaina's son, Jag Junior.

"Will you come back for my coronation?"

"Of course I will. Nothing will keep me away."

He shifted in his seat nervously and fidgeted, running a hand through his blond hair, his blue eyes darting from the floor and then back to me. "Once I'm King, will you stay?"

I really was hoping he wouldn't ambush me with that question. I wanted to stay, but staying would affect Zylie, Ben and Valla.

Marcus obviously anticipated my concerns. "I will pay for replacement crew members for your ship. Valla will be able to operate her business without hurting her profit margin. Zylie can even bring her vornskr to the palace. I was thinking of purchasing some as guard animals."

I let out a dry laugh. If Marcus knew how much I disliked that creature he would never have mentioned Zylie's pet. "That is a very generous offer and if I was a single man I would jump at the chance…but I really need to discuss this with all concerned." I gazed at Marcus sadly. "It's not money that keeps me on the _Vazy Princess_. Zylie and her sister are very close, and Ben is like my brother."

"All of you are welcome here. You and Ben can train others to become Knights here on Indupar."

I let out a long sigh. "Ben's father is the Grand Master of the Jedi Knights. I know Uncle Luke was upset when your grandfather left the Jedi. It would break his heart if his son did the same. Ben could never abandon the Jedi to train knights here." I rubbed the back of my neck where tension was creating knots in my muscles. "Let me discuss this with the rest of the family."

"Is your reluctance because of my mother?"

I couldn't deny that being around my old lover was somewhat uncomfortable for me, but at least there was no longer animosity between us. "No, that's not it. I am not holding back any truths from you. It is simply that I need to discuss this with Ben, Valla and Zylie because it will affect them also."

Marcus seemed to accept that answer. "That's all that I can ask."

I thought about my conversation with Zylie a day earlier about settling down on a planet if she got pregnant. Having a step-sibling living in his palace might not be something Marcus would find tolerable. I decided since we were asking tough questions I should broach that subject. "Marcus, I was talking to Zylie about this same topic and we both agreed that it might be preferable to be planet-side if we decide to…have a child together."

I watched Marcus intently looking for a reaction. To my surprise he smiled brightly. "I would love to have a little sister living in the palace, if that's what you are worried about."

"Sister?"

"Or brother," he quickly added. "I would welcome any members of my family to live in the Palace."

_Why did he say sister? Did he see something in the time stream?_

Before I could ask him about that he deftly changed the subject. "I asked your father to be Supreme Commander of my troops."

That was news to me. "What did he say?"

"He said he was too old to lead from the front and he was not a rear echelon commander." Marcus paused. "He said he could never ask soldiers to do something he wasn't willing or capable of doing himself." He gave me a furtive look. "He recommended you for the job."

My jaw dropped by his statement. "I…uh…I'm flattered by the offer, but I have never commanded troops before. I have always fought as a Jedi Asset under the command of others. I think you need somebody with much more experience. Also, appointing your grandfather or me to such a high military position would cause people to wonder why. I know you believe you can't be ousted once crowned as king, but why tempt fate?"

Marcus chuckled. "Somehow I knew both of you would decline. Most people would jump at the chance of having so much power, but not Tantiss men." He paused for a moment. "Did you ever wonder if the cloners, when tinkering with the Skywalker DNA, muted that particular behavior when creating your father?"

_Where the hell did that thought come from?_

"I don't know what C'baoth had the cloners do to my father. Dad was created to be bigger and more muscular than the other Skywalker clone. We always thought he was designed to be an Imperial Sentinel. If that's the case they wouldn't need to breed out ambition for power. He would have been chemically lobotomized and become and extension of C'baoth's will." I stared at him questioningly. "Why do you ask?"

He shrugged. "It was something I found interesting. I always wondered something… if C'baoth planned to lobotomize my grandfather…why did he bother providing him military flash training?" Marcus gave me that disturbingly intense gaze once again. "I don't think my grandfather was intended to be an Imperial Sentinel at all. He was to be much, much more and to keep him from harming his master, I believe the desire for power was somehow clipped out of his DNA."

"What? Why are you bringing this subject up?"

He gave me a small shrug. "I find it odd that I dread becoming King. Don't most people desire power?"

I laughed. "I don't think alterations in DNA have anything to do with that. Most boys would be nervous about becoming the ruler of two worlds."

"Perhaps," Marcus sounded unconvinced.

"Didn't a great philosopher once say, ' _Those who desire power are the most ill-suited to possess it_ '?"

Marcus chuckled at my remark. "That was a quote from a superhero animated holoshow."

I guffawed and then blushed. "I was never the best student in school."

"Grandfather has told me as much." When I frowned he added, "But he also said you are his favorite son."

I grinned. "And you are my favorite son."

"I'm your only son."

_'I sure hope that's true'_ , I thought sardonically. "Let me talk to Zylie about your request. I can tell you this, though, we definitely don't want to raise a baby aboard a ship…so eventually we will settle down."

He gave me a slight smirk. "Perhaps you should get back to your wife, then."

That suggestive comment had me blushing even brighter. My dad's influence definitely has rubbed off on my boy.

Of course, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.


	8. Chapter 8

**_Entry 31_ **

After talking to Marcus I went back to my room...only to find **my wife naked with another man**!

Okay, to be fair the man was one of the Palace masseurs and he was fully clothed wearing crisp white pants and a tight gray compression shirt. Zylie was lying on a portable massage table with a thin sheet over her. Currently the fabric was pulled down to her waist as the young, muscular man kneaded the knots out of her shoulder muscles. To my great irritation, Zylie moaned with pleasure every time he rubbed her back.

I know I shouldn't be jealous…but I don't like other guys touching my wife. I loudly cleared my throat and Zylie looked up from the padded table and smiled. "Talon, you should try this. It feels amazing."

I frowned as I entered the large quarters and sat on an ornate couch in the living area. "I see you are enjoying it… _immensely_."

A teasing grin crossed her face. "You're jealous."

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and shook my head. "No, I'm not."

She made a disbelieving snort. "What do you think Roko? Is he jealous?"

The young man was probably in his mid-twenties with deeply tanned skin, wavy brown hair and a face that I'll reluctantly admit might be considered handsome to some women. Roko looked over to me and gave an apologetic shrug of his shoulders. "I have never been good at interpreting body language. I do have to say that if he is jealous you will have to forgive him. Your great beauty must draw the attention of many men." He moved his hands down Zylie's back as she groaned in delight.

Ack! The palace is full of brownnosers; the staff must take a course on flattery and adulations.

"Don't be jealous Talon. Roko is your mother's masseur. If you father trusts him, I am sure you can trust him."

The man gave me a disarming smile as he brought his hands up in a placating gesture. "Jedi Tantiss, I assure you, your wife is in good hands."

My jaw tightened and I wondered if I would be kicked out of the Jedi Order if I force shoved this guy through a wall.

"Besides, I'm sure palace masseurs are eunuchs." Zylie managed to say most of that sentence without laughing.

Roko made a face. "Mistress Tantiss that particular custom was abolished over six hundred years ago. I'm certain my wife would be very displeased if the Queen reinstituted the tradition." He looked up to me and smiled. "If you like Jedi Tantiss I will call a masseuse for you."

A slow grin crossed my face. "Sure, how about a tall blond female, human or Zeltron." Okay, I was trying to get Zylie jealous. She knew I once dated a Zeltron.

He nodded. "Certainly." He pulled a comlink from his pocket and spoke into it before returning it back to his pants. "Sensuna will be here shortly. She is your father's favorite masseuse."

About ten minutes later the front door chimed. I opened it up and and found a tall blond filling the doorframe…and I mean she literally filled the doorframe. The woman looked like she could be a Slingball Front Tackle. She was about my age, almost two meters in height and with shoulders almost as wide as mine. Her face was wide and square with piercing blue eyes. She was human, but obviously from a high gravity planet. She was holding a folding massage bed under one arm like it weighed nothing.

"I am Sensuna the masseuse." She didn't smile but kept a blank expression on her wide face.

"Come in." I moved aside to allow her to enter. She walked to an open space in the living area and set up her table. She looked up to me as she spread out sheets over the table. "Take off your clothes and get on the table facing down under the sheet."

I heard Zylie giggling. "You usually have to buy him dinner before he does that."

"Ha, ha, funny Zylie." I moved toward the 'fresher where I had a bathrobe. I closed the door and then striped down and put on the white fluffy bathrobe and then strutted back to the living area.

Sensuna lifted up one edge of the sheet. "Remove your robe and lay down please." When I hesitated she dropped the sheet and turned around. "You are shy like your father I see."

That got a chuckle out of me. I removed my bathrobe and climbed under the sheet. "I'm ready." I put my head down in the padded hole that allows me to lie facedown without suffocating or squashing my nose. I could feel the masseuse pull the sheet down to my waist and large hands running across my shoulders and back. At first the massage started normal with light pressure, but the force increased until the point where I wanted to protest the manhandling. "What type of massage is this?

"I specialize in deep tissue therapeutic massage." She squeezed my trapezius muscles pushing her thick thumbs into the muscles along my spine. She put some type of lotion on her hands and worked down my back. "You are almost as big as your father."

I chuckled. "I thought you didn't peek when I climbed on the table." That joke was rewarded by a sharp pain in my back. "Ouch, what was that?"

"You had a knot in the muscle. It is gone now," she said matter-of-factly.

After a while the massage got more relaxing and I understood why my father likes this particular masseuse. "So Roko, what type of massage do you specialize in?"

"Hot stone massage, classic relaxation and aromatherapy massages." He paused for a moment. "I also am a trained Yannu therapist. Sometimes it is given the misnomer of a sensual massage, but it is not sexual. The person is completely naked and exposed as I run my hands the full length of the body. It not only feels good but it induces an emotional release."

I started to tense up again and Sensuna dug her thumbs into my back in response. "Stop tensing up!"

Roko chuckled. "Jedi Tantiss I did not give your wife a Yannu massage, I assure you. Your mother has never received that type of treatment either. Your father told me he would snap me in half if I ever did."

"Turn over," Sensuna ordered me. I turned around while under the sheet. I blushed when I realized the thin piece of fabric didn't hide the outline of my manly assets.

"I wouldn't want to cross your father," Roko said. "He's a big man."

"Yes, he's a big man." Sensuna agreed as she pulled the sheet down to my waist. "The son is almost as big."

I was sure she was looking at the outline of my groin while she said that, but I was probably just imagining things. What I wasn't imagining was Zylie chuckling at my discomfort. I took a deep breath and tried to relax as Roko the masseur rubbed his hands all over my wife's body. I wondered if this was Zylie's way of payback for Ben and me going undercover at a topless bar.

I guess it's tit for tat. Ha!

.

.

**_Entry 32_ **

The next morning we prepared to leave. I first went to Marcus' quarters to say my goodbyes. He said it was best that we weren't seen at the docking bay together since I was ostensibly here to visit my parents and not him. I went to his quarters without Zylie. Sometimes he cries when I leave and he hates it when Zylie sees him that way.

Today he was depressed at my departure, but also a bit desperate. "Can I go with you. Just for a short time? Things are going to get crazy as we near my coronation and after I'm crowned my ability to leave the planet without a brigade of guards will be impossible."

He looked at me with sad blue eyes. I shook my head as I reached out and tussled his blond hair. "You know your mother would never allow you to come with me. Maybe after you are crowned she won't be so worried about your paternity being discovered."

"Please!" His voice was strained and pleading, but there was nothing I could do.

"I'd take you if I could, but you know you have to get your mother's permission. If I snuck you out she would make sure I never set foot on Indupar again. I can't take the chance of losing my ability to visit you." I put my hands on his shoulder and looked him in the eye. "You know I'm right, don't you?"

A tear ran down his cheek as he reluctantly nodded his head. "Yeah, Mom would be mad and the Queen might toss you in the dungeon if you snuck me out of the palace." He leaned in and gave me a big hug. "I'll miss you."

I returned his hug and then broke away and smiled at him. "I'll be back in a few months for your coronation. I promise."

He snuffled as he drew a hand over his eyes to wipe away his tears. "Okay."

I let out a deep sigh as I stepped away from him. "I have to go. We have to be in Corellia soon for our trade run. Maybe I'll have another Jedi mission that will bring me to this sector of the Galaxy soon."

He nodded sadly, but didn't respond.

"Goodbye Marcus." I turned and walked out of his room feeling despondent and helpless. Since I discovered Marcus' existence ten years ago I have been first denied visitation and then reluctantly given short durations in which to bond with my son. Hopefully all of this will change soon.

Next Zylie and I went to say goodbye to my parents. My mom and dad are always sad to see us go, but we promised we would return soon. My parents said at the end of the year they would return to Coruscant and spend time with my brother, his wife Jysella and daughter Jessa. I know they wish they could see their granddaughter more often, but it is hard with them living on a different planet. Unfortunately if they had remained on Coruscant it would look odd if they visited Indupar often. With dad acting as Marcus' Force Instructor he now had an excuse to be with him and it was completely understandable for my parents to visit Coruscant and their family there. We said our goodbyes and then went to Ben and Valla's quarters where we rendezvoused with a palace attendant that drove us back to our ship.

The first thing I heard when we boarded the _Vazy Princess_ was Zylie's Vornskr growling and howling. I sure didn't miss that animal in the last few days and I'm not sure why Princess is acting all irritable. We hired an exotic animal handler to board her in a nice facility while we were at the palace. He brought her back to the ship this morning, so it isn't like Princess was stuck in a cage for the last few days.

I went and checked on her to make sure she was all right. The angry animal was turning in her cage growling and gnashing her teeth. Without opening the cage I scrutinized her, looking for signs of injury or illness, but saw none. She was just being a little more ornery than usual, I guess. I think she doesn't like being away from Zylie too long. I decided to leave her in the cage until she settled down. I don't trust the animal not to bite me when she is in a foul mood.

"What's wrong with Princess?" Zylie asked me when I exited the storage bay where we keep the animal's cage.

"She hates my guts and wants me dead," I responded in a deadpan voice. "Same as usual."

"She does not." Zylie brought her luggage into our cabin as I went to the flight deck to get ready to depart. When I entered our pilot droid ID10T was prepping the engines. "Greetings Jedi Tantiss. I hope your visit was enjoyable."

"Yeah, yeah," I mumbled to the droid. "Why do you insist on chitchatting with me? We both know you don't care."

The silver droid turned his head toward me…a totally unnecessary movement since he has optical sensors all around his head and I could hear him fine through his voice modulator no matter which way he was facing. "That is untrue. I am programed to be concerned about you and the other members of the crew."

"And I'm programmed to not care," I shot back.

ID10T was silent for a moment. "I do not understand, sir. What type of programing could you possibly undergo to develop disinterest in my human-empathy programing?"

Ben entered the cockpit and sat down in the pilot's chair. "Do we have the green light to go?"

The droid pushed a few buttons and checked the readouts. "Yes, Jedi Skywalker. I do need to report that the ship doors were entered earlier using the proper entry codes."

"That was the animal handler." I dropped down to the copilot seat. "Didn't you hear the Vornskr howling?"

"Indeed I did sir."

In the distance I heard Princess let out a plaintive wail. "Just get us into orbit so I can space that animal."

The droid turned his body fully toward me. "Sir, I am certain that would be in opposition to the ship Captain's orders."

I frowned. "I am the ship's Captain."

Ben turned to me and grinned. "I thought I was the ship's captain. I'm sitting in the pilot seat."

I gave him a measured look. "Well, I'm in the Commander's seat."

"Sir, I must inform you that Valla Karrde Skywalker is listed in the records as the ship's captain."

Ben gave me a big bantha-poodoo eating grin. "Ha, my wife is the Captain. You are a lowly cabin boy."

I gave him a roguish smile. "Well then, I better get to your cabin and make sure the Captain is comfortable."

Ben punched me in the arm. "Don't even joke about that. You're not Valla's type." A wide smile split his face. "She likes handsome redheaded men…who have it where it counts."

I made a face and snorted. "Please, I am definitely better than you in all departments…luckily I'm a happily married man…or else I might have stole Valla right from under you."

"That is very unlikely sir," ID10T spoke up. "Captain Valla Skywalker and your wife Mistress Zylie speak extensively when they are together on watch…much of what they discuss involves the pros and cons of their spouses. Captain Valla Skywalker steadfastly insists Jedi Skywalker is superior to you in all aspects of male anatomy and performance. Although, to be fair, she does admit her conclusions are based on anecdotal evidence gathered from Mistress Zylie's conversations and not from any empirical data."

"What?! She didn't say that!" I shook my head in disbelief as Ben gave me a smug self-satisfied grin.

"I assure you sir, she most certainly did make that statement." The droid sounded somewhat offended by my incredulity. "The women on this ship are very candid when it comes to comparing and contrasting their two mates. I must say, their conversations are extremely interesting particularly when it comes to your sexual prowess and human reproductive copulation abilities and deviations."

"Deviations?" I scowled at the droid. "The ladies talk about us in that way?"

"Why, yes sir. They often confess detailed and humorous stories about you two."

I turned bright red with embarrassment. I knew the two sisters talked to each other and didn't keep secrets (that's why I was astounded that Zylie didn't tell Valla about Marcus), but I didn't like them talking in front of a droid that can record every word and every nuance of their voice. It is never good to have a permanent record of such things. "Remind me to have your memory wiped."

The droids head swiveled towards me so quickly that it made a snapping sound. "Sir! A memory wipe reduces my piloting capabilities. I learn and gain experience beyond my normal programing over the years."

"Don't worry Talon," Ben said while trying to contain his laughter. "I'm sure ID10T won't tell the world that I am by far the superior lover."

"Indeed, I won't sir," the droid assured me. I gritted my teeth together while I considered the cost of repairing a pilot droid after I decapitated it with my lightsaber.

"Just get us in orbit so we can get out of here."

I looked over to Ben. He had a hand over his face while his shoulders shuddered from containing his laughter. "Don't laugh. I'm sure in some of these stories I came out the better man." I turned to the pilot droid, who remained stubbornly silent. "Right?!"

"Sir, I have said enough. I realize you have enmity toward droids in general. I would rather not intensify your dislike for my kind."

Ben made a dismissive wave of the hand. "You'll have to give Talon a break, Ten-Tee. He got his dislike of droids from his father."

"Why does Master Tantiss dislike droids?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. He just does."

Ben's brow furrowed. "You don't know?"

I shook my head. "No, he never told me anything."

Ben grabbed the steering yoke and started moving the ship out of the docking bay. "He told me…maybe because I was his apprentice. It's different from the father and son relationship."

"Well, what did he say?"

Ben maneuvered the craft up into the Indupar sky and accelerated to the upper atmosphere before answering. "Your father first got turned off by droids because my dad always talked to See Threepio and Artoo Detoo like they were sentients. He found that odd and disturbing and didn't want to end up like my father with a droid following him around all the time. But the main reason he dislikes droids was because he discovered that the clones during the Clone Wars were called Wet Droids. He found that term very derogatory and demeaning to the men who fought that conflict. _'Clones are men, not droids,'_ he would say. Since he's a clone he hates the comparison. Because of that slight, I believe he transferred some his anger over to droids.

"I wonder why he never mentioned this to me?"

Ben shrugged. "Your dad and I spent days and weeks together on missions. A man starts talking about everything and anything when they are bored and on patrol or pulling sentry."

"I guess so." I heard Princess yowl again. "What's with that animal?"

"Sir, we have an incoming communication from Indupar. It is encrypted from the Palace. Would you like me to send it to your quarters or would you prefer to view it here?"

"Decrypt it and we'll view it here."

The droid pushed in a series of buttons on a datapad to descramble the communication. After a moment the face of Marcus' mother, Ema Aiti, appeared and she didn't look happy. "Talon, did you take Marcus with you?" Her voice was harsh and accusing.

"What? No! I left him in his room." I leaned forward in my seat. "He's disappeared?"

She let out a shuttering breath. "Yes. Did he say anything that might give us a clue as to where he would go?"

I thought about it for a moment. "He did say he sometimes wished he could dress like a commoner and go into town. I told him not to do that. It would worry you."

Ema buried her head in her hands. "Why would he want to go into town alone?"

I scoffed. "Because you have people following him constantly and he never gets to play with other kids and he is worried about becoming king…shall I continue?"

She shook her head. "I'll have a company of soldiers search the surrounding area for him."

I heard Princess howl once more. She was acting particularly irate lately. It was almost like... My head snapped toward the hologram of Ema. "Hold on for a moment. He did ask to come with me and I said no. I think we might have an royal stowaway." I stood. "Give me a few minutes to check something out." I turned to ID10T. "How many times did the door open this morning before we returned to the ship?"

"Twice sir."

I groaned as I left the cockpit. I went over to my cabin and asked Zylie to grab Princess' harness and to accompany me to the cargo hold.

"What's going on?" Zylie asked as we walked to the storage bay.

"I think Marcus snuck on board. I want you to harness up Princess so she can lead us to him." I turned to my wife. "And make sure your pet doesn't bite him."

She rolled her eyes. "She won't." She reached through a small opening in the cage and slipped the harness and collar on the animal. She then opened the cage while keeping a firm grip on the leash. The Vornskr lunged forward and went straight to a medium size cargo box.

I sat on the box and gave Zylie and exasperated look before I knocked on the lid. "I don't know who's inside but I'm going to let the vornskr eat you and then I'm going to space your bones to hide the evidence."

Zylie gave me a disapproving look. "Talon, you're bad," she whispered.

"Dad, it's me!" a small voice came from the metallic container.

"Who's me?"

There was a slight pause. "How many people call you dad?"

I smiled and motioned for Zylie to pull Princess back out of biting distance. I stood and opened the lid. Marcus poked his head out. He was wearing a common worker's jumpsuit soaked with sweat. "It gets hot in the cargo hold I see," I said sarcastically while allowing a hint of anger to permeate my voice. I grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him out of the container. "Your mother is worried sick about you."

I kept a firm grip on his clothing as I dragged him to the flight deck. He didn't struggle as he shuffled next to me his head drooping. "Sorry…it's just this probably will be the last time I have any chance of a normal life, even if it is only for a few days or a week. When I'm crowned my childhood is gone."

I shoved him into the cockpit where the holotransmitter could catch his image. "I found your missing Prince."

Ema's eyes closed. "Thank goodness."

"Can I please stay with the crew for a while," Marcus begged making sure he didn't reveal his relationships with Ema or me. "I'll be safe." He turned to me. "Please."

I shook my head. "That's not up to me."

Marcus stared at his mother's holographic image. "Please! I won't be gone long." He gave me a glance. "Will I?"

I ran a hand through my hair. "We can't get back to Indupar for another two weeks."

Marcus' smiled brightly at that news, but Ema was not happy at all.

"It's too dangerous."

"I'll be with two Jedi Knights—the same knights that protected you and the queen twelve years ago. If they are good enough to protect a queen they should be good enough to safeguard a Prince."

Ema shook her head and I knew she was going to say no. I also knew Marcus was right; this might be his last chance at some freedom. "Ema, give him some independence. You can't protect him forever. My father has trained him well. He's a skilled fighter. He'll soon command the armies of Indupar. Don't you think he should have some time away from the palace before he is thrust into a life of ruling others?"

Ema looked to her side where most likely her sister was sitting out of sight. She muted the audio and I could see her lips move in silent conversation. Eventually she turned back and the audio resumed. "Two weeks and we want updates daily if you're not in hyperspace."

Marcus gave out a happy whoop but then immediately restrained his enthusiasm.

"Thanks Ema. I'll take good care of him."

She glared at me for a long moment. "You better!"


	9. Chapter 9

**_Entry 33_ **

After my conversation with Marcus' mother I clicked off the transceiver and turned to my son. "So you want to be like a normal person and part of a crew. Is that right?"

He grinned ear-to-ear. "Sure. I want to be a smuggler."

I had to laugh. "First of all, we're not smugglers. We're traders. We move cargo from point A to point B."

His enthusiastic grin started to wane. "Yeah, but you are also Jedi."

"Yes, we are." I pointed to Ben. "And if we're called out on a Jedi Mission you'll stay here with the ladies. Your mother would have my head if she thought I put you in harm's way."

"I think you should add him to the duty roster, Talon." Ben gave me an evil grin. "I know a job that would be great for a Prince."

I wasn't sure what he was getting at. "What?"

He gave a lopsided smirk. "A prince taking care of a princess."

That got me laughing out loud. "That's perfect." I put a hand on my son's shoulder. "You are now demoted from Prince to cabin boy and your first duty is to clean out Princess' cage and urine waste system."

Marcus couldn't hide the disappointment in his eyes. "Why do I have to get the worst duty?"

I crossed my arms in front of my chest trying to look the part of a stern father. "Because I'm the Captain of this ship and I said so."

"Sir," ID10T interrupted. "As I clarified earlier, you are not the…"

"Ten-Tee do you wish to remain on vornskr duty indefinitely?" I shot back.

The droid hesitated for a moment. "No Captain Tantiss, Sir."

I snorted at the droid's response before I turned my attention back to my son. "You might as well take over the other cleaning duties I had assigned to Ten-Tee and that includes cleaning the 'fresher and making sure it is properly stocked with toilet paper."

"And make sure the toilet seat remains down," Ben added.

"Oh yeah," I agreed heartedly. "Force forbid if one of the ladies topples into the toilet late at night because the seat was left up. You'll wish you were back home."

Marcus' shoulders slumped as the excitement melted from his face. "Okay."

I felt a little bad about putting a crimp into his adventure. I smiled and gave him a fatherly one-armed hug. "Don't sulk. I'm sure we'll have time on Corellia to do something fun."

He gave a slight nod. "Okay."

I guided him off the flight deck and down the corridor. "I'll have Zylie introduce you to Princess and show you what you need to do." I stopped in thought. "We may have to do something about your looks before we get to Corellia. As a leader of two worlds your face might pop up in some face recognition software. Zylie and Valla sometimes use disguises since Karrde's organization is banned from doing business in some sectors."

Marcus' face lit up. "So sometimes you _are_ smugglers."

I never really thought of it that way. "I guess on rare occasions we are…but not on this run. I want you disguised because I don't want anybody recognizing you. We can dye your hair and maybe put on a temporary facial tattoo. That is the best defense against face recognition software."

"Can I get some Nightbrother tattoos?"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "Sure, if you allow me to shave your head and screw cranial horns into your skull."

He chewed his bottom lip deep in thought and I realized he was actually weighing the pros and cons of such a drastic disguise. "I was being facetious! I'll have Zylie paint Kiffar tattoos on your face."

I brought him to the supply closet and showed him where the 'fresher and vornskr cleaning supplies were located. "I'll get you started in the 'fresher and then Zylie will help you with Princess." I grabbed a sponge and disinfectant spray bottle and shoved them into his hands. "You wanted to see how normal people live and now you got it. Have fun."

He grumbled something under his breath as he shuffled over to the 'fresher.

I chuckled as I returned to the flight deck where the rest of the crew was now located. Valla was in the seat I vacated and was giving flight and docking instructions to Ten-Tee. Zylie stood behind Ben in the pilot's chair. When I entered she flashed a good-humored grin. "Have you totally squashed your son's adventurous spirit?"

I shrugged. "I doubt it, but he hasn't dealt with a vornskr yet. I'm leaving that to you. The only advice I can give him is he should _never, ever_ move when a vornskr shoves her snout into his groin."

Zylie smiled sarcastically. "She only does that to you because she likes you."

I snorted. "She must _love_ me."

Valla looked up from her datapad. "We have a problem Zylie."

My wife walked over to the co-pilot seat and looked over her sister's shoulder. "What is it?"

"Our contact for this run is Captain Tarpolli."

Zylie's face scrunched up as a visible shudder ran down her spine. "Uh…I hate that guy."

I looked at the two ladies. "Is he dangerous?"

Zylie flashed her sister an inquiring gaze. "I wouldn't call him dangerous…would you?"

Valla shook her head. "No, if anything he's too friendly."

"Ohhh..." I said knowingly. "Is this the guy you said had the eyes of a serial rapist?"

"Oh, no, no, that's not it at all," Zylie clarified. "He's some sort of alien and in their culture they hug people as a greeting." She scrunched her face in disgust. "I don't like hugging him…he's _too_ alien."

"And he's way too huggy," Valla added.

I frowned at Zylie's statement. I can understand not liking to get touchy-feely with a client, but the _too alien_ comment bothered me; it sounded like something a human-centric speciesist would say. "What type of alien is he?"

Zylie shrugged then looked at her sister. "Do you know?"

"I can't remember. He's the only one of his kind I've ever seen. He's big and hairy…sort of like a Wookiee with clothing."

I shook my head not understanding the problem. I've seen Zylie hug Chewbacca in greeting before. Never has she shown prejudice toward any sentient. Hell, she even loves vornskrs the most obstinate and vicious creatures I have ever met. "Would you like me and Ben to do the drop off? I can bring Marcus."

Her face lit up. "Would you? I'd appreciate it." She gave me a kiss on the cheek before moving to the flight deck exit. "I'll go help Marcus with Princess."

I frowned at her behavior. She was acting strange.

.

.

**_Entry 34_ **

Well, I just returned from my meeting with Captain Tarpolli, the cuddle-loving alien. I now know why Zylie was behaving strangely…and I am ** _not_** amused.

The day started out normally. We arrived to Corellia, docked the freighter and the men of the ship disembarked for the cargo exchange. Marcus was excited about his disguise. Valla and Zylie did such a great job that I'll bet his mother wouldn't recognize him. His hair was dyed jet-black and he had a thick red Kiffar line-tattoo painted across his face just below his eyes. Because he wanted to look like a smuggler he asked Zylie to use some make-up putty to add a scar running down the side of his face from the forehead to the chin. I have to admit, he looked menacing…until his face broke into a boyish grin.

We let Marcus order up a cargo mover droid to unload four large crates. Ben looked to me and smiled. "So, you know the drill. We will meet Captain Tarpolli, he will do a traditional greeting consisting of a hug and then he will press his forehead against ours. We get the credits, he gets the cargo and we're done."

"Yeah, yeah…I got it. Remember I don't have a problem with aliens…and I didn't think my wife did either, but…I don't know. I guess you can't like every species in the galaxy."

"Yeah," Ben said slowly his voice sounding oddly strained. "We'll set a good example for Marcus."

"I got all the crates out of the cargo hold Captain." Marcus popped to attention and gave me a crisp salute.

I shook my head wondering if he really thought he was acting like a smuggler. "Thank you."

Ben's comlink beeped. He pulled it out of his pocket and listened for a second before putting it away. "Valla is on the flight deck. She said she saw our contact enter the bay."

"Good." I straightened my tunic and we started walking to the bay entrance to greet Captain Tarpolli. When I saw him I stutter stepped as my breath caught audibly in my throat. "I am going to kill Zylie," I mumbled to Ben as I slowly resumed walking. When I heard Ben chuckle I turned to him fuming. "You were in on this, weren't you?"

Ben couldn't answer; he was having too much trouble containing his laughter.

Marcus looked at me confused. "In on what?"

"I'll tell you later," I whispered through clenched teeth as I tried to suppress a shudder.

 ** _I was had_**! Zylie purposely didn't tell me what type of species we were dealing with…Captain Tarpolli is a member of the Harch species from the planet Secundus Ando.

A Harch is basically a giant, hairy sentient spider with huge fangs, two protuberant chelicerae, and six red eyes. They walk on two legs and use their other six limbs as arms. This Harch was clothed in a casual outfit, which consisted of a short, six-sleeved tunic and pants. Instead of boots he went barefoot, his two large furry toes sticking out from the hem of his trousers.

I started to hyperventilate at the thought of touching him.

**_I have arachnophobia._ **

Everybody at the Temple knows that I have this particular aversion. It started when I was a teenager. Jacen Solo had a pet jumping-spider that he took out of its cage to show Ben and me. That spider jumped out of Jacen's hand and onto my shoulder before it skittered down my tunic and past the waistband of my pants. I freaked out and started tearing off clothing until the spider fell to the floor. Unfortunately this happened in the Temple gymnasium and dozens of apprentices saw me screaming like a little girl while doing an impromptu striptease. Since that day I have not been fond of spiders. I know I never told Zylie this story…so I was confused as to how could she have set me up this way? I turned to Ben who was turning red and biting his bottom lip. "You told Zylie and Valla about what happened in the gym. You put the girls up to this, didn't you?"

Ben shrugged. "Maybe."

We met up with Captain Tarpolli in the middle of the bay. He made a frightening facial expression that probably was a smile, but to me it looked like he was going to bite my head off. "Hello, I'm Captain Tarpolli. I was told the lovely Valla and Zylie were currently unavailable and members of their crew would welcome me." The Harch spoke in Basic with a harsh, throaty voice. "Greetings." He stepped toward Ben and gave him a six-armed hug before he dropped his hairy forehead to Ben's temple. He then did the same for Marcus who took the entire custom in stride. Then Tarpolli twisted his large nightmarish body to face me. I started to break out in a cold sweat as he leaned forward, arms out for an uninviting and horrifying embrace. I closed my eyes as his hairy arms pulled me tight against his body. I winced when I felt his warm, sour smelling breath waft over me as he lowered his forehead to mine. I let out an audible sigh of relief when he finally let go of me.

I don't remember the rest of the transaction. Ben handled it. I was busy going through my Jedi relaxation techniques in an effort to calm my nerves.

We finished the deal and were walking back to the ship when I whispered to Ben, "I will get back at you. I don't know when or where or how, but I will get you back."

Ben gave me a teasing grin. "What was that you said earlier? Oh yeah, I recall, it was, _'Remember I don't have a problem with aliens'."_ He broke out in laugher while Marcus looked on confused.

"You are so dead."

I swear, before this assignment is over Ben _will_ get his comeuppance.

.

.

**_Entry 35_ **

Marcus was jabbering excitedly as we walked up the boarding ramp of the _Vazy Princess_. "What kind of alien was that? I've never seen anything like it. He seemed really friendly."

I rolled my eyes. "Extremely friendly." I noticed Ben was trailing behind us just out of punching range. As we entered the ship we could hear the ladies laughing and my ire grew with every snicker. I don't know how my own wife could find such amusement in my discomfort. The two women came down the corridor chatting and laughing with each other. When Zyle saw us a broad smile crossed her face as she put her hand out and said. "Pay up!" I realized she wasn't looking at me but at Ben straggling behind. He gave a moan as he plunged a hand deep into his pocket.

"I think you warned him," he complained as he pulled out a fist full of credit chips.

Zylie gave an incredulous snort. "You know I didn't." She held out her hands as Ben deposited about a dozen hundred-credit chips into her cupped palms. A smug smile blossomed across her face as she gazed up to me holding her hands out, offering me the credits. "I knew my brave Jedi wouldn't falter."

I took the chips in my hand and gawked at the large amount of funds. I looked up at my wife questioningly. "You bet on me?"

She looked a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but when we told Ben our contact was a Harch he claimed you would freak out and run away. I told him there was no way. He then bet me a thousand credits and I took him up on that bet." She wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips. "I knew he was exaggerating your fear of furry eight-legged creatures."

 _'More like eight-legged demons from hell_ ,' I thought but didn't try to dissuade Zylie of her beliefs. I turned to Ben and glared at him. "Ha! That's a lot of credits to lose." I turned back to Zylie. "What should we do with Ben's hard earned money?"

"Shopping!" Zylie said excitedly. She grabbed Marcus around the shoulder and grinned. "Let's take Marcus shopping for clothing."

I made a face and so did Marcus. Guys just aren't into clothes shopping. I guess Zylie couldn't help but notice our twin expressions. She frowned with a roll of her eyes. "Okay, how about we go shopping for blasters, tools, vibroblades, and bedazzler balls."

My brow furrowed in confusion. "What are bedazzler balls?"

Marcus bit his bottom lip in an effort not to laugh. I am fairly certain whatever imagery that popped into my preteen son's head was either entirely inaccurate or something terribly vulgar…or both.

"You know, they are those tactical ball that you throw at people and it delivers a bright flash and a loud banging sound that disorientates your target and allowing you time to make a quick exit."

"Ohhh…that's a stupid name," I said while putting the credit chips into a trouser pocket.

She put her hands on her hips and glared at me with a slight smirk. "Would you rather they were called _'Flashy Bang Balls'_?

Marcus started giggling again.

"How about we call them dazzticals," Valla offered.

A loud laughing snort came from my son before he turned around trying to hide his amusement.

"No, I'd rather you not call them anything." I gazed at Zylie in disbelief. "Have you actually used those?"

"Sure. Our father was a smuggler for Sith-sake. He's got all types of weapons like that. In fact I have a pair. I know you've seen them in the top drawer of the bedside table."

"Ohhh," I said slowly. "That's what those are." I chuckle as my face heated in embarrassment. "I thought those were something completely different."

He brow rose in shock. "What _did_ you think they were?!"

"Nothing, nothing!" I coughed to hide a laugh as I decided to change the subject. "What other weapons did your dad train you on?"

She glowered at me, but dropped the subject about the bedside balls. "He trained us to use just about every legal weapon he owned."

"And some illegal weapons," Valla pointed out.

"Oh yeah, do you remember that disruptor rifle he bought on the black market?"

"The Tenloss DXR-6. Dad took us to target practice with it on Tatooine. He shot an old abandoned speeder out in the desert and all that was left was a black stain on the sand and a bit of ash."

"I want a disruptor rifle!" Marcus said enthusiastically.

"No! If I did get you one I'm sure you mother would take it away and use it on me."

"Excuse me, Sirs," came Ten-Tee's mechanical voice over the ship intercom system. "There is a priority message from the Jedi Temple for Jedi Skywalker and Tantiss from the Grand Master."

Ben and I looked at each other before hurrying to the ship's flight deck. "Play the message," I ordered the droid. A wavy image appeared above the holoprojector before it solidified into the face of Grand Master Skywalker." I was relieved when he smiled, knowing at least it wasn't bad news.

"Ben, Talon. I hope things are well. I was told you would be on Corellia. I need a couple of Jedi to meet a contact with information that he claims is important for the Jedi to know about. He is an old friend of mine from the time of the Rebellion. There shouldn't be any danger, but he has me worried. When I talked to him he refused to discuss why he needed to talk to a representative of the Jedi…just that it was important."

"Sure, Dad. Just send us the contact information and we'll be on it."

Ben's dad gave us the name of the contact and a location to meet and after a few pleasantries signed off.

I gave Ben a smug look. "I guess this means we get out of clothes shopping."

My cousin gave me a hoot and a high-five. "Poor Marcus. Those ladies will have him modeling outfits all day."

"He'll never want to stowaway on the _Vazy Princess_ ever again." I picked up the mini-datapad where I stored the contact information. "I guess we should get dressed in nondescript clothing and meet our contact."

I knew Marcus would want to accompany us and it was possibly safe enough for him to do so, but after all the worry and grief he put his mother through he deserved to be dragged to the mall.

Ha! Better him than me!


	10. Chapter 10

**_Entry 36_ **

Ben and I were to meet our contact at docking bay sixty-three located in a less than desirable area of downtown Coronet City. Gross. Why can't we ever meet a contact while on a white sand beach and drinking fruity fizzes? No, it's always in some seedy bar or docking bay that smells like urine and body odor.

The docking bay was currently filled with shabby crop freighters that barely looked space-worthy. Sentients and droids were busy unloading fruits and crops from various planets across the galaxy and loading them onto refrigeration speeder trucks.

I startled when a large scavenge rat ran across my boot. Ben chuckled and I gave him my best _'I'm going to kill you'_ look. "I'm not scared of rats. That one just surprised me." Ben looked at me innocently. He knows I am still pissed at his Harch practical joke. I shivered at the memory of hugging that big hairy spider.

Across the bay a gray haired man walked toward us with a swift and purposeful gait. As he neared he extended a hand and smiled. "Jedi Skywalker." He grabbed Ben's hand and shook it enthusiastically. "I'm Tas Yanko. I fought alongside your father during the rebellion." He turned to me. "You must be Jedi Tantiss. I have heard of your father and his famed mission to Byss."

As he shook my hand I have to force myself to smile. If Yanko knew how tore-up my father had been about the destruction of the planet Byss he would never had brought it up, but there was no way he could know. To the general population the planet Byss was a symbol of the Empire and its evil Emperor and deserved to be obliterated. Dad was not of the same mindset. My father was on the planet hours before its destruction and knew most of the people of that planet were hard working innocents simply trying to eke out a living working as taxi drivers, restaurant workers, plumbers, sanitation laborers…they were of all walks of life…not just Imperials.

"Thank you," I managed to say.

The man's smile didn't fade as he motioned us toward a battered freighter. "This is my ship. Come on in. I have a holovid I want to show you."

He continued talking as we walked up the boarding ramp of the freighter. "After the rebellion I went back to Corellia and became part of Corsec. We were doing a sting operation on one of our Senators. He had rented a room in a downtrodden part of town, which is usually the setup for a meeting. He was in some legal trouble, so we thought he might try to bribe some law enforcement official…and he was trying to get help, but at a much higher level than we could imagine." We entered the flightdeck of his ship where he activated a holoscreen. A grainy image appeared of a man nervously pacing a room. "That's Senator Bekker. Sorry about the quality of the holovid. We quickly ran a thumb-sized vid-droid through the ventilation system. This holo was taken through a ceiling vent. We thought he was going to meet a judge or prefect but what happened next was unexpected."

A man entered the room and from the high angle of the holocam I couldn't make out his features, but when he spoke I recognized the voice. _"What the hell do you want Bekker? Why are we meeting in this flea-bitten piece of crap hotel?"_

I looked over to Ben. "Is that Chief-of-State Mokk Streke?"

Ben nodded before our contact confirmed my suspicion. "Indeed it is. He was on planet for a galactic campaign conference and Bekker must have contacted him."

Senator Bekker ran a nervous hand through his hair. _"Mokk, I have always been one of your greatest supporters. I need your help now. I know you can make problems disappear. You don't go from a rimworld planetary governor to Chief-of-state in a little over a decade without assistance. Maybe your friends can help me?"_

Streke put his hands on his hips. _"Friends? What the hell are you talking about?"_

The senator looked around the room nervously. _"I assume you have friends in high places…Black Sun, formidable labor unions…or perhaps power lobbyists."_

Streke stepped toward the man in an intimidating gesture. _"Is that what you think? I came here because I considered you a friend. I've heard of your little problem, unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it. If you decide to diddle with underage Twi'lek girls and get caught on a holovid what can I do? I thought you were going to ask for asylum on some backwater planet to avoid your problems…instead you want me to…what? Kill witnesses? Are you kriff'n mad?"_ He pointed to the door. _"Get the hell out of here before I make_ you _disappear."_

The Senator moved toward the door but paused in mid-step. _"I'll take asylum…banishment. I don't want my family to be publicly humiliated by a trial."_

Streke crossed his arms across his chest and lapsed into a thinking pause. " _You're family doesn't deserve to have their lives ruined by your bad decisions. I'll write up a decree banishing you to a planet in Wild Space and request the media to respect the privacy of your family. That's all I can do."_

I could hear the Senator let out a relieved breath. _"Thank you."_

As the Senator left the hotel room I looked over to the older Corsec operative and shrugged. "So? You have a pedophile Senator and we have a Chief-of-State that won't be corrupted."

The man pointed toward the holovid. "Keep watching."

As soon as the door closed behind the Senator a deep voice rang out in the room. _"You need to pick better friends."_ The words had a mechanical sound to them, as if a person was talking through a translator mechanism.

Streke jumped and spun around his eyes searching the room for the source of the sound. _"Where the hell are you?"_

There was a flickering visual distortion against a far wall before a humanoid in a black stealth suit—a personal concealment system—appeared.

" _Kriff!"_ Streke yelled out. _"Why did you follow me? I hate it when you do that!"_

The humanoid moved closer to the Chief-of-State and I could tell it was a large species. It could be a Wookiee using a voice translator. The suit covered every part of the body, so I couldn't be sure what species we were dealing with. _"I was ensuring your safety. My master and I spent a lot of money, time and effort getting you to the position of Chief-of-State. If you get caught up in some nasty situation our work is for naught."_

Streke stepped back from the man. " _I'm not stupid."_

_"That remains to be seen."_ The large man circled Mokk before stopping in front of him. _"You have a mission and your anti-Jedi rhetoric has done nothing. The Jedi are still on Coruscant and I want them off."_

Mokk threw up his hands in frustration. _"They have their Temple there. It's not like I can evict them."_ He shook his head. _"What do you have against the Jedi anyway?"_

_"Nothing. I have business on Coruscant and I don't want Force-using Jedi in the way."_

_"What kind of business?"_ Mokk threw back his shoulders in defiance. _"If you and your Master belong to a criminal organization you can forget about getting further cooperation."_

There was an awkward silence between the two before the larger man spoke. _"I am not a criminal, but I don't want Jedi meddling in my affairs. My mission involves removing…malignant elements from society and not having justice-loving Jedi in the way will make my work easier."_

_"Oh…you're a bounty hunter."_ Mokk shrugged. _"I can put more pressure on them to move. I can ramp up the anti-Jedi sentiment and make life difficult for them. This could encourage them to move their temple somewhere else."_

The large humanoid shook his black masked head. _"That will take years. I want them gone soon."_

_"What the hell do you want me to do, kill them?"_

The black figure's arm shot out faster than humanly possible, grabbing the Chief-of-State around the neck and lifting him off the ground. _"No! If you kill one Jedi you will alert them. Do you want the Grand Master marching into your office and sucking all the secrets out of your head before making you forget you ever saw him?"_

Mokk tried to talk but barely had the ability to breathe. The man dropped him back to the floor. Streke gasped for a minute rubbing his neck before looking up at the menacing figure. _"Can Jedi do that?"_

_"Yes!"_

Mokk shook his head. _"That's hard to believe."_

_"I have seen it done! Send them all on a mission, a quest, anything! Just get them off planet."_ The mysterious person pointed to the door. _"Now go!"_

"Whoa," Ben said as the Chief-of-State left the room.

Tas Yanko put up a hand indicating for us to be silent. "Watch what happens next."

The large humanoid stood in the room for a second before he quickly turned and stared up at the vent where the vid-droid was transmitting. He walked closer gazing in the direction of the vent. I don't know how he could possibly sense a tiny vid-droid from behind the vent grill and I also couldn't understand how he could see a damn thing through the fabric covering his face. After a second, the man waved his hand and the holo went fuzzy before the transmission went dark.

Ben looked to Yanko. "Did he use a signal scrambler?"

The older man shrugged his shoulders. "That's what we thought until we retrieved the droid. It was crushed, but there was no evidence that the vent was tampered with." He stopped for a moment letting us consider his words. "We think he used the Force to crush the droid." He pulled the holovid datachip from the projector. "I thought the Grand Master would be interested in knowing he doesn't have a friend when it comes to Chief-of-State Streke."

Ben and I both laughed. "We've known that since the beginning. He doesn't hide the fact that he hates Jedi."

"But we didn't know he was being manipulated to get rid of the Jedi." Ben took the datachip from Agent Yanko. "When was this taken?"

"Last month. We had our analysts go over it extensively. They determined the person was using a M-43 voice translator…but that doesn't mean he wasn't speaking basic. The M-43 can be used as a voxscrambler to alter a person's voice." He gave us a grim look. "Will you hand carry this to your father? I trust my people to keep quiet, but the Coruscant government is full of supporters of the Chief-of-State. I don't know whom to trust. I thought your father would want to know that the leader of the government might be plotting against them."

Ben bounced the datachip in his palm looking at it thoughtfully. "That is definitely something he would want to know."

.

.

**_Entry 37_ **

When we got back to the _Vazy Princess_ we found a very irritated eleven-year-old boy wearing an outfit that only mothers or possibly aunts would buy a boy. He was wearing pleated khaki shorts, a red designer collared sport shirt, white socks and spiffy yachting shoes. He looked like a child model for some upper-class clothing catalog.

"Doesn't he look cute," Zylie gushed over the boy as Valla stood next to her sister admiring Marcus. I looked over to Ben and tried to suppress a smile.

"Very cute," Ben said before losing his fight to maintain a straight face.

"Not funny," Marcus said as he put his hands on our shoulders and pushed us down the corridor and away from the ladies. "You don't know what I went through the last few hours," he whispered through clenched teeth. "They had me trying on just about every outfit imaginable and model it for them."

"Welcome to my world," I said with a snicker.

Marcus glared at me. "I had to do a Jedi mind trick to get them to stop. I told them they were tired and wanted to go back to the ship."

Ben chuckled. "You did a Jedi Mind Trick on Valla and Zylie?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so."

Marcus gave an earnest expression. "It's true. Grandpa taught me how to do it."

"Please. Your grandmother is better at influencing people than my dad and she doesn't even have the Force."

Ben grinned at me. "Let's ask the ladies." Ben went to call over his wife but Marcus grabbed him by the arm.

"No! They'll be mad."

Ben grinned. "I guarantee they won't be mad." He waved to Valla and Zylie. "Hey, did you know Marcus did a Jedi Mind Trick on you?"

Valla and Zylie looked at each other with an overly exaggerated look of shock and surprise. "Really!"

Valla smirked as she covered her mouth with her hand to hide her amusement. "Of course we knew. He is so adorable when he thinks he's being sneaky."

Zylie chuckled as she attempted to do Marcus' voice. "You are getting tired." She made a sweeping motion with her hand. "You want to return to the ship."

Valla giggled. "Why do Jedi always have to make that hand motion? You're not hypnotizing us, you're using the Force."

Marcus looked crestfallen. "What?"

Zylie came over and patted the boy on the shoulder. "Don't be upset. I'm sure you were doing it right…but it only works on weak-minded people."

Valla gave Marcus an apologetic expression. "Plus when you started using that goofy creepy voice and waving your hand we were expecting it."

"We're also wives of Jedi. We've learned how to block out that nonsense." Zylie turned to me and smiled. "Your mother taught us how she does it."

"We realized you were getting tired and decided to bring you back to the ship by our choice." Valla gave him a quick hug. "Don't worry, we're not angry we thought it was cute."

"Cute, like his outfit," Ben agreed.

Marcus glowered at us. "If you excuse me, I need to change into work attire. I don't want to get vornskr poop on these adorable clothes." With that said he marched off toward his cabin.

A wide grin crossed my face as I turned to Ben. "I think I sensed a hint of sarcasm with that comment."

"Ya think?" Ben chuckled as he took Valla's hand and walked down the corridor toward the flight deck.

I turned to Zylie and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for taking care of him."

She grabbed my face and planted a slow, sensual kiss on my lips. "I don't think he'll stowaway again."

I had to laugh. "I think you're right."

.

.

**_Entry 38_ **

We stopped by Coruscant to hand deliver the datachip that Tas Yanko gave us to Ben's father. I wasn't sure what to do with Marcus while we were there. I was sure if we showed up at the Grand Master's doorstep with a young boy there would be questions. Even with Marcus' hair dyed and fake Kiffar tattoos painted over his face I was afraid his Force presence could be identifiable to my uncle and aunt. They had spent so much time with me that I am sure they would figure out Marcus was my son.

I contacted my brother Jaden and asked him to pick up Marcus at the spaceport. Since he was the temple doctor he could sneak him into the Jedi temple using the emergency entrance and into his quarters. It would be good for Marcus to see his uncle, aunt and cousin Jessa.

ID10T landed the freighter at one of Coruscant's docking bays for oversized ships and we waited for my brother to arrive. Always punctual he was at the ship within minutes of our arrival.

He climbed up our boarding ramp with a wide grin. I noticed his dark brown hair was a little longer and his normally tanned skin was a shade darker.

"We're you on vacation?" I asked him as he entered the ship. "Or did Uncle Luke have you doing missions on Tatooine?"

"Jysella and I went on a second Honeymoon to the Great Sea. Corran and Mirax babysat Jessa for us." He went over to Zylie and gave her a kiss on the cheek and did the same for her sister. He turned to Marcus and gave him a hug. "I couldn't believe your mom let you off Indupar, but your dad explained how you snuck on board. You are just like your father…always getting into trouble." He released the boy and reached up to tousle his hair. "I like the new look. You look more like your grandmother's side of the family now. Well, minus the tattoos."

"Grandma has a tattoo," Marcus said with a grin.

I looked at my brother questioningly. He just shrugged. "What tattoo?"

Marcus brought a hand over his right shoulder and touched his back. "It is really small, but she has the Indupar _Bright Path_ symbol for love on her shoulder blade and the initials for grandpa, her children and grandchildren. M, J, T, M, J for Mark, Jaden, Talon, Marcus and Jessa. I saw it when we were swimming."

I shook my head in disbelief as I looked to Jaden. "Our mother is inked?"

Jaden smirked. "I guess so." He threw an arm around Marcus. "I guess I will get to sneaking him into the Temple. Meet us at my quarters when you are done talking to the Grand Master."

I waved as my son and brother left the ship. The rest of us locked up the freighter and headed to the temple.

.

.

**_Entry 39_ **

Ben and I sat in the Grand Master's office as we watched the surveillance video. Ben's mom brought our wives to her living quarters to keep them entertained.

After watching the video, Uncle Luke ran a hand over his jaw thoughtfully, looking very troubled. "What is Mokk Streke up to? Why does his mysterious benefactor want the Jedi off planet?"

"Streke believes he is working with a bounty hunter." Ben shifted in his seat as he reached for the remote so he could replay the vid. "Do you think this guy is a Force-adept?"

We watched the black masked man wave his hand as the surveillance holo went to static and then Luke leaned forward gazing at the image. "I would say he is a Force-sensitive."

"Sith, self-trained or former Jedi?" Ben asked.

"We have few former Jedi of that stature. That could be a Wookiee or an extremely large human." He shook his head. "At the angle this vid was taken it is impossible to determine his height other than he is taller than Streke and his shoulders are massive compared to the Chief-of-State." Luke scrutinized the holovid as Ben put it into a loop to watch. "Messing with a digital camera is not difficult, he could be self-taught. I just don't know how he figured out the camera was there."

"I've worked with that particular surveillance camera. The droid can make a slight noise as it focuses…but only somebody familiar with surveillance systems would recognize the minuscule buzzing sound."

"A bounty hunter would know about surveillance, locks, slicing," I pointed out.

"Pppsssfff," Luke made a noise dismissing the idea. "He's not a bounty hunter. If he were he'd ask Streke to get Jedi out of various sectors he planned to work in. Why would a bounty hunter want _all_ Jedi off the planet?" He turned to us, his face terribly serious. "I could think of a reason that a Sith would want us all gone. If the Sith could infiltrate the office of the Chief-of-State then he or she might do as much damage as Emperor Palpatine. And if we are looking at more than one Sith…apprentice and Master or maybe more than two…they could infiltrate key positions within the government."

"But we haven't seen a Sith since…well since Jacen's little indiscretion with Lumiya." I frowned at the memory. Jacen turned to the Dark Lady of the Sith in an effort to protect his wife and daughter from assassins. My father ended up killing Lumiya on the planet Myrkr. He then performed a memory rub on Jacen so he didn't remember that he almost went darkside. So far Jacen hasn't shown any indication that he remembers his time with the Sith. We told him he received a blow to the head while fighting Lumiya. The resulting injury caused memory loss. It was a big lie, but the family so far has managed to conceal this major cover-up.

"Yes, Lumiya." Luke sighed deeply. "At least we know that's not Jacen. He's about the same height or shorter than Streke." The Grand Master stood and then leaned back, stretching his spine. "Mara was going to get a meal delivered. We can talk about this later."

We left my uncle's office and went to his quarters. There we could smell the aroma of Melahnese cuisine. The ladies were in the sitting area drinking some type of sparkling juice. My Aunt Mara ushered into the dining area remarking that she didn't want the food to get cold.

The meal was nice, but the conversation was better.

"Soooo…" Aunt Mara drew out the word as she looked to Ben and Valla. "When are you going to get around to making me a grandmother?"

I thought Ben was going to choke on his food. He coughed a few times before he managed to swallow the large chunk of meat he had been chewing. "Mom, can we have this conversation after I have been married for a few years instead of a few months?"

Uncle Luke covered his mouth with his hand in an effort to hide a smile. "Your Mom went over to see Mirax while she was babysitting little Jessa. I think that got her biological grandmother clock ticking."

Mara glared at Uncle Luke, but there was no fire behind her eyes. "My biological clock is not ticking." She turned to Ben. "It's just you took so long to get married…I'd like to see my grandchildren before I am too old. I'd like to be able to play with them without breaking a hip."

Ben gave his mother a tight smile. "You do have other children, you know. Why don't you bug Jak, Owen or Hanna to have kids?"

My aunt frowned. "Because they're not married and I would like them in a committed relationship before they started bestowing me with grandchildren."

Ben grinned. "Well then, you better start nagging them into finding somebody and settling down."

"Oh, she's doing that already," my uncle said with a chuckle. "Your siblings pointed that _you_ were already married and that's where she should focus her efforts."

Ben glowered. "That's nice of them."

When I snickered Aunt Mara turned to me. "Don't laugh, I'm sure your mother has been giving you hints."

_'Nope,'_ I thought to myself. "My parents have little Jessa, so the pressure is off of me."

Uncle Luke stabbed at a piece of meat and brought it up to his mouth, but stopped at the last minute and lowered his fork while gazing at me. "I was really surprised that your parents left Coruscant when they have a granddaughter here. If your father wanted to train Jedi he could have done it here. Why is he off training the Prince of Indupar?"

My stomach clenched. Ema made me promise to keep Marcus' paternity secret until his coronation. Only my immediate family was to know. The only reason Ben knew was because he was the person who discovered I had a son. "You'd have to ask my father that?"

"Indupar is a beautiful planet," Zylie added trying to be helpful. "Talon's parents have all the benefits of living in a palace."

"Masseurs on demand," Valla said with a grin.

"And awesome food, a spa, pool, steam rooms, whirlpool baths in the 'fresher, breakfast in bed, chauffeurs, and a mini-bar in the guest quarters."

"And the masseurs come right to your room," Valla clarified.

"Yes," Ben said slightly irritated. "We all know about Ricky the masseur."

"Roko," Zylie corrected. "He's Kira's favorite masseur. He's really good." She turned to my Aunt Mara. "If you ever go there you should request him."

"Did you know one of the massage options available was a Fertility Massage." Valla turned to Ben. "Maybe I'll get one of those the next time we're at the Palace."

Ben blanched at the suggestion.

"Oh yeah, Roko told me about that." Zylie turned to me and smiled. "The massage is supposed to help bring fresh blood to the reproductive tissues, reduce stress hormones and helps reposition a tilted uterus."

Okay, that was way more than I wanted to know about that particular massage. "If you ever get that massage…it will be done by Dad's Masseuse, Sensuna."

Zylie made a face. "I don't think so. I saw how she manhandled you. I'd probably end up sterile after she rearranged my internal organs."

Ben pushed his seat away from the table and dropped his head into his hands. "Can we please stop talking about this? Mom, give me and Valla two or three years as a couple and then maybe…maybe we will consider children."

"Until then you can practice the process," I said with a grin. I notice both Ben and Luke turned the same shade of red.

Uncle Luke changed the subject to smashball and other manly topics for the remainder of the meal…much to Ben's relief.

Ha!

After dinner Zylie and I went to my brother's quarters. I couldn't wait to tell him about this particular dinner conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author Note: The conversation about Jacen and Lumiya was covered in the story Second To None: Sacrifices. You can find a link to the story in my profile. It was also covered in Talon's first diary called The Journal of Talon Tantiss.


	11. Chapter 11

**_Entry 40_ **

After dinner Zylie and I said our goodbyes to the Skywalkers and left to see my brother and his family.

Jysella and my brother greeted us at the door and ushered us into their apartment. Both Jaden and Jysella are Jedi Healers at the Temple and have their quarters in the same wing as the infirmary. When I entered my three-year-old niece Jessa came running up to me yelling, "Unc Tayon!" That is her way of saying Uncle Talon, which I guess is better than the way she pronounces 'Aunt Zylie'. I swear it sounds like she is saying _'anxiety'_.

I scooped the little brown-haired girl into my arms and gave her a big kiss on the cheek. "Hey Jess, how are you?"

"Good," she says before she puts on the shy act. I hand her over to Zylie and she cuddled and tickled our niece until Jessa squealed.

I look around for my son but don't see him. I turned to my brother, "Where's Marcus?"

Jaden threw a thumb in the direction of his study. "He's looking through some of my medical books."

In the distance I heard. "Oh gross!"

I frowned at my brother. "You're not letting him look through your book of medical anomalies, are you?"

My brother shook his head. "No, that would be too disturbing. He is looking through my textbook of lesions, boils and carbuncles."

I cringed in disgust. "That one is just as bad!" I heard Marcus make a gagging noise and I marched past Jaden and into his study. There I found Marcus sitting in my brother's office desk chair and looking through a book called, "Disgusting Foods". He grinned when I entered and held up the book so I could see the cover better (which showed a bowl of maggots. Ack).

"Uncle Jaden let me read a book on the weird foods different species eat. Did you know that Wookiee's eat something called won-wons. They are slugs! Yuck. And Hutts eat grain maggots and crunchbugs!"

My brother came in behind me and chuckled. "Did you really think I'd let him look at a book on boils? The Queen would have my head." I turned to him and punched him in the shoulder, which made him laugh louder. "I've missed you, little brother. How long are you staying?"

I gave a disappointed sigh. "Just for the night. I need to get Marcus back to Indupar or the Queen and his mother will have my head."

Marcus looked up from his book. "You do know there hasn't been a public execution on Indupar for two-hundred years."

I rolled my eyes. "That doesn't mean she couldn't order it done privately."

"That's true," Marcus said casually before going back to his book.

I gave my son a double take at that comment.

"Just kidding, Dad," he said without looking up from the text.

I decided to leave him to his disgusting reading material and do a little catching up with my brother. I put an arm around his shoulder and walked him out of the office. "So, what have you been up to? Are you still researching disease epidemiology when you're not mending broken legs or laser burns form practice droids?"

He shook his head. "For the last few months, I have been doing research on the existence of midichlorians. Dad had talked about them and I verified their existence through the Jedi Holocron, but I still haven't been able to isolate that particular organelle in the human body or any other species. The Holocron gatekeeper Bodo Baas said the Jedi had a detector that could analyze blood and give a midichlorian count, but Master Baas didn't know anything beyond that. He was neither a medical doctor nor an engineer."

We went to the living room where our wives were sitting and talking while little Jessa played with toys on the floor in front of them. I dropped down on the couch next to Zylie and Jaden leaned on the armrest of his wife's large padded chair. "What will you do with that knowledge?"

My brother shrugged. "I guess the best application will be weeding out Jedi candidates. We have way too many parents bringing their children to the temple claiming their kids have what it takes to be a Jedi. Instead of wasting time running them through trials it would be much easier to do a blood test. Of course, after I have isolated midichlorians I need to figure out a baseline reading for admission. I have taken blood samples of various Jedi to include Master Skywalker and dad. I wouldn't mind getting your blood and maybe Marcus'"

"I'll give you mine, but you'll have to ask Marcus' mother if he can be part of your experiment." I looked at my brother questioningly. "If you were on Indupar to get dad's blood why didn't you ask her permission to get Marcus' blood then?"

"I got his blood when he came to visit us last month."

"Mom and Dad were on Coruscant? They didn't mention that."

Jaden shook his head. "Only dad. He said he had business in the core."

My brow furrowed. "What about?"

My brother gave a slight shrug. "He said he was trying to purchase a Void Jumper suit for himself. You know how he loves collecting armor and weapons."

I gave a roll of my eyes. I think the only reason my mother hasn't put her foot down when it comes to my father's hoarding is because they now had room within the palace to store his collection of military gear. "I hope he's just buying it for his collection and not for some other reason."

"What other reason would your dad have?" Zylie interjected.

I heaved a sigh. "Marcus is at an impressionable age. I hope dad didn't buy the suit so he can talk Marcus into doing something dangerous like go to Jump School when he is old enough."

My brother gave an incredulous snort. "Said the man who became a Jedi Guardian and then went off to the Galactic Alliance Jump School just so he could be like his dear old dad."

"Yeah, well, that's different. That's me…not my kid. I don't want him getting hurt. So I hope dad is not telling him rousing stories about the glory of war." After some thought I became convinced that that was exactly what was happening. "I'm going to find out." I stood and turned toward my brother's study. "Marcus, come here."

After a few seconds he came out holding the book under his arm. "Yes?"

I folded my arms across my chest and gazed at him intently. "Did Grandpa bring a Void Jumper power suit back to Indupar recently?"

The boy's eyes went wide and I could tell he was trying to figure out why I asked that question and if telling the truth would get his grandfather in trouble. "Yeah," he finally admitted.

I turned to Jaden and Jysella. "See, I told you. Dad is trying to get a second generation to follow in his footsteps and become a Jump Trooper like him."

Marcus shook his head. "No, grandpa doesn't do that. I asked him to get a suit. I wanted to see how it worked."

"So, you can be like him," I reiterated.

"Dad, no." He blushed and looked away. "It's because I want to be more like you. I wanted grandpa to train me the same way you were trained because I want to be like you."

My arms dropped to my side as I gazed at him dumbstruck. _He wants to be like me?_ I have no idea why that statement shocked me. It's not odd for a son to venerate and emulate his father. I know I looked up to my dad and tried to be just like him…but Marcus was no ordinary son. He would be ruler of the Induparan Crown Worlds within months. I tried to find my voice but words failed me. I instead walked up to him and gave him a big hug.

He tolerated the emotional response until Jysella and Zylie made an "Ohhhh" sound followed by "They're so cute". At that point he pushed me away and gave a self-conscious smirk. "Why do women always call me cute?"

"Because you are cute!" Jysella laughed.

"Just like your father," Zylie added.

He held up his book. "I think I'll go into the study and read some more."

"Okay cutie!" Zylie said teasingly.

The rest of the night went well. I got caught up with what was going on at the temple, friends and family.

I discovered Ben's sister Hanna started dating an older Jedi Knight…much to Uncle Luke's disapproval. Jaden said there were rumors that Uncle Luke was planning on sending him off to one of the satellite Jedi Academies in the outer rim, but my Aunt Mara intervened. She said Hanna was an adult and was quite capable of picking her own mate without her father's assistance. That was probably a good decision because knowing Hanna she would have married the man just to go counter to her parents' wishes.

The Skywalker twins were still dating sisters they met at a twins conference, but they didn't seem eager to settle down. I found out Jysella's brother Valin finally gave up his womanizing ways and was now exclusively dating a preschool teacher from the local area. For some reason I can't imagine Valin dating a woman whose profession doesn't require the use of a dance pole and six inch stiletto heels.

My brother inflated a guest mattress for me and Zylie and Marcus slept on the couch. I know we could have slept on the ship, but I still get claustrophobic living on the freighter. It was nice being planet-side.

Tomorrow we travel back to Indupar. I wish Marcus could stay with me forever, but that's not to be. I'm just glad we had some family time together.

**.**

**.**

**_Entry 41_ **

On the way back to Indupar Zylie dyed Marcus' hair back to blond and had him scrub off his Kiffar tattoos. As we neared the Indupar star system a feeling of melancholy washed over me. This isn't the first time I've had to say goodbye to my son, but this definitely will be the most difficult. Spending two weeks with Marcus was great and allowed me to bond with him like I haven't been able to before. Unfortunately it made the thought of separation more excruciating.

The night before our arrival on Indupar, late in our sleep cycle, I heard a commotion in the cargo area. I opened the bay door and found Marcus awake and playing with Princess. It seems that the ship's vornskr has taken a liking to my boy. I guess I'm the only person on this freighter that the animal dislikes. When I entered the cargo bay he was in the middle of a game of tug-of-war with the large predator. He held one end of a towel while Princess grasped the other end securely between her teeth. The vornskr growled and shook her head trying to pull the cloth out of Marcus' hands. Occasionally she let go of the towel before lunging forward and seizing the piece of fabric once again between her sharp teeth. I always cringed whenever anybody on the ship played with her this way. I am just waiting for the animal to bite somebody's hand off.

Upon seeing me, Marcus let go of the towel. Princess ran to the opposite side of the bay where she began gnawing the fabric to pieces. "Hey dad."

I leaned against the bulkhead, arms across my chest and frowned. "What are you doing up so late?"

He gave a small shrug. "I can't sleep. I'm worried about what's going to happen when I get back. Mom was really mad at me for stowing away."

A slight smile crossed my face. "She was, but I'm sure she'll get over it. I'm glad it happened. I loved spending time with you."

Marcus grinned widely. "I had a great time too. You are probably right about mom. Grandpa often tells me an old army saying, _'It's easier to get forgiven than get permission'_ ".

I dropped my arms and stepped away from the wall. "Did your grandfather encourage you to stowaway?"

An ' _Oh kriff'_ expression momentarily crossed Marcus' face. "No, not really."

"Not really?"

He scratched the back of his head nervously and averted his eyes. "He didn't tell me to stowaway. He did say that when you were a boy if you wanted to do something that you knew he wouldn't approve of, you'd do it anyway and then hope you'd get forgiven." He grinned at me. "Grandpa said you were a handful."

I tried to disguise my laugh with a cough. "Yeah, I guess I was a little wild in my youth." I walked up to him and tussled his hair. "The difference is my father could always sense through the Force that I was alright. You're mother can't do that. I know she could consult the seers, but you told me yourself that they see multiple timelines and can't say for certain what the future holds." I gave him a fatherly hug. "Your mother was worried sick. I don't want her dreading my visits, thinking you might try something like this again."

"Sorry dad."

I let go and stepped away. "That's okay. I enjoyed my time with you…but, next time try asking her. She might surprise you." I put an arm around his shoulder and led him out of the cargo bay. "Come on, let's go to the galley and get a snack."

He smiled. "Ben told me about hot chocolate. I don't think I've had it before. Do you have some?"

I gave a nod. "I think Ben bought some while on Coruscant."

We went to the galley and made up two mugs of hot chocolate. I am not a big fan of the beverage. I prefer caf, but Marcus loved it. I have a feeling the Palace kitchen will be stocked with this uncommon beverage from now on.

.

.

**_Entry 42_ **

Ema was waiting for us when we landed. She was standing next to a luxury speeder with a small contingent of guards standing by. For a second I started to worry that they were there to drag my butt off to some dungeon. "What's with the guards?" I asked Marcus. He looked out the flight deck viewport and grinned. "Don't worry. They're my personal guards." The smile dropped off his face. "I hope they weren't reprimanded for losing track of me." I gazed at the guards and they didn't look happy. All of them wore the same gruff expression, but that might be normal for them. I wasn't sure.

"If they did, maybe when you become king you can make it up to them."

I put a hand on his shoulder and led him down the corridor. Because we didn't want to do any public displays of affection, Ben, Valla, Zylie and I gave him a big hug and said our goodbyes while inside the ship. I then walked him down the loading ramp to where his mother stood. She glared at Marcus but through the Force I could feel her intense relief at getting him back unharmed. She told him to get inside the speeder while she talked to me.

"Thanks for keeping him safe," she said softly to avoid being overheard.

"Keeping people safe is what I do," I said with a grin. "Thanks for letting him stay with me for a while."

She gave a small nod. "He idolizes you. A boy needs his father. We should have found a way to do this earlier."

I couldn't help but smile at that comment. Maybe this meant Marcus and I could see each other more often. "I'll be at his coronation in a few months. Maybe after that we can arrange to see each other on a regular basis."

She gave me a weary smile. "I think he would like that very much…and he probably will make it happen no matter what anybody says. He is a willful boy."

"Like father, like son," I whispered.

"The Tantiss men are all alike I have discovered." She smiled. "But that's a good thing." She moved to the speeder and slid into the seat next to Marcus. "We'll see you in a few months."

A guard walked up and closed the door and then signaled for the driver to leave. I watched as the guards jumped into two armored speeders and accompanied Marcus' vehicle.

I sighed deeply and returned to my ship feeling miserable. Zylie met me at the top of the ramp and pulled me into a warm embrace. She didn't say anything but simply held me tight.

I hate goodbyes.

.

.

**_Entry 43_ **

I have been a bit depressed lately. I loved spending time with my son, but it only served as a reminder of what I am missing out on. Zylie has been trying to cheer me up…in the most pleasurable ways. Ha! Gods I love her.

After a week of moping around the ship I was called out on a mission. I was asked to work as a Jedi asset to a Void Jumper unit that will be dropped into a hot zone on the planet Treemar. We will be doing a counter-terrorism mission. It is basically a hunt and destroy operation…the type I like.

Ben won't be accompanying me because only qualified Void Jumpers can go on this mission. He really needs to get his jump wings, but when I suggested that he says he really has no desire to wear a combat uniform that requires the constant use of a urine collection system (UCS). Wuss! Ha! Of course the only thing worse than being attached to a UCS, is being connected to a malfunctioning UCS. That happened to me during one combat mission. I was in a battle with mortar rounds falling around me when a sudden urge to pee hits me (having a mortar round land nearby will do that). After a few seconds I realized the suction system was not working and I had warm urine running down my legs and threatening to fry the electrical components of the suit. I spent three hours with warm piss sloshing around my armored leggings and boots that day. Not fun (Although when I told Zylie this story she thought it was funny as hell)!

So I am off to the planet Treemar. This should be interesting.


	12. Chapter 12

**_Entry 44_ **

I flew my Stealth X out to the planet Treemar and met up with the 88th Void Jumper Regiment.

I forgot how much I liked that armored suit. Doing drops out of combat troop carriers is a rush of adrenaline. The guys often compete against each other to see who can drop the farthest before engaging their propulsion systems. This is dangerous because the longer you wait the more likely that you will miscalculate and splat on the ground. The higher ups have outlawed the practice because a few troopers have died, but the guys do it anyway. I won a few bets doing this before the men caught on. I can slow my descent utilizing the Force and wait until I am only a few meters from the ground before initiating the thrusters. So not only am I referred to as the Jedi spook, now I am called the lowdown cheating Jedi spook. I gave the guys their money back, so there is no hard feelings…I hope. Hey, the rules did not specify that using the Force was not allowed. They added that rule recently just for me. Ha!

We jumped into some thick forested areas where we thought the terrorists had a bomb making operation. Some gunships went out before us to prep the site. They dropped a bomb we call a Tree-Cutter… which does exactly that. It opens up an area the size of a smashball field.

We drop in and moved through the area looking for the enemy. Intel said their orbital sensors had picked up activity about a kilometer from our position. It was a standard seek and destroy operation. My job was to use my post-cognitive Force abilities to help locate the enemy. I didn't need to utilize those particular skills though because the enemy wasn't content to run and hide. They brought the fight to us.

The terrorists were a strange near human species that I have never seen before. They had blotchy red and yellow skin, bald heads and large black eyes. They all wore the same type of form fitting, skin-colored bodysuits that made them look like sexless nudists. They were short, about 1.5 meters in height, but they were ferocious fighters. They would not surrender and they would not stop attacking. That was disturbing to me because sometimes they were grossly outnumbered. We would try to capture them, but they were willing to blow themselves up just to get at us. We ended up having to kill most of them. A few were injured so badly they could not resist. They were evacuated to a medical facility before being turned over to Intel.

I don't know what their problem was with the local government, but it must have been a major gripe for them to be willing to die for their cause.

After the mission we went back to our forward operations base and awaited new orders. I got a few days to socialize and bond with the troopers. Although most soldiers don't like Jedi, I am also a Void Jumper and that trumps being a Jedi Spook. I am respected because I am a decorated combat jumper.

We were housed in an open bay barracks with lockers and bunk beds lined up in the huge room. I was laying in my rack reading my datapad when two troopers came up to me grinning like a couple of idiots. They were both young, probably in their late teens or early twenties.

"Are you the Jedi?" The question came from the baby-faced blond who reminded me a little of holos of Luke Skywalker during his rebellion days.

I sat up in my bunk and nodded. "Yeah, what about it?" I know I sounded a little defensive, but I am just waiting for the stupid questions.

"Can you read minds?" the other man asked. He is a little older with jet black hair.

I shook my head. "Nope. If I could I probably wouldn't be in trouble with my wife as often."

"Can you pick up things using the Force?"

"That I can do," I admitted and waited for them to request a demonstration.

"Oh oh," the blond said excitedly. "Can you make me float?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah sure." I grab him with the Force and lift him about a meter off the ground. The young man let out a startled yelp before he started laughing.

"Do me!" The other man said. I said okay and lift him off the ground as well. By then a group of troopers wandered up to us and were watching the show.

"Rub those two against each other," one newcomer suggested. I look over and it's our platoon sergeant.

I gave him a wicked grin. "You got it, Sergeant."

The two men floating in the air protested as I used the Force to push them together belly to belly. They cursed at me as they tried to push themselves apart with their arms and legs. Eventually the curses turned into death threats. Their buddies were laughing and making kissing noises.

"That's enough. Let them down, Tantiss," the platoon sergeant laughed and I dropped them to the ground. "Don't be asking the Jedi to do tricks unless you are ready for the trick to be on you," he warned the troopers. The two men looked pissed, but with their platoon sergeant and their buddies around them laughing hysterically they eventually saw the humor in it.

I don't think they will be asking me to do Force tricks again. Ha!

.

.

**_Entry 45_ **

We dropped into another hotspot today. This time it was to rescue hostages held by the terrorists. This brought back bad memories of my first combat mission. My dad, Ben and I went in to rescue a group of hostages only to discover they were all slaughtered by their captors before our arrival. It was a gruesome scene that made me question whether I wanted to be a Jedi at all. Luckily Ben and dad were there to save my ass when I froze at the sight of the unfortunate victims.

I was determined to make the outcome of this mission successful. I was on a recon team utilizing my post cognitive skills to lead us to a warehouse outside a medium size village. We released a couple of small hover spy droids to get a view of the inside of the building and watched the streaming vid on a datapad. We found a group of those bald near humans we encountered earlier in the week holding a group of humans and twi'leks captive. The hostages were tied up to chairs with their mouths gagged as the terrorists stood around them with blasters in hand. We called back our situation report and were told to hold fast until reinforcements arrived.

As we waited we noticed the tension of the room rise. One alien was listening to some type of radio and then screamed something to his comrades. Immediately they went on high alert, running to windows and doors to peer outside. Since we had eyes in the air we were safely out of view, but the atmosphere within the warehouse grew tenser by the second.

"Command, this is Green One," the squad leader called into his radio. "We have movement within the warehouse. It looks like they know you're coming. Permission to enter and attempt to free the hostages?"

There was a pause on the other end before the platoon sergeant responded. "Do not enter unless the hostages appear in impending danger."

"Confirm, Green One out." He put down the radio and grimaced. "That doesn't give us much time to react. They can turn their blasters on them and they'll dead in seconds."

He gazed at datapad for a few more minutes, his face becoming more pinched as he watched events unfold. "They're going to kill them…this doesn't look good." He turned to me. "Tantiss, how good are you in doing REBJs?"

I tried to shrug but my armor prevented me from doing so. "Rapid Entry by Jedi is something I'm trained to do. Do you want me to go in first?"

The squad leader chewed on his lower lip for a second before answering. "I was thinking I'd take the rest of the squad around the back and come in through the roof a safe distance from the hostages. We'll do a blast and drop insertion. You'll be our decoy if you think you are good enough to repel blaster fire with that lightsaber of yours. Come in at the front, get their attention and hopefully we can surprise them from the rear."

I can feel the squad leader's reluctance to ask me to do this, which made me smile. Whenever I work with ground pounders, the infantry appear more than willing to throw a Jedi to the Rancors. They don't care if I risk my neck, but when I'm attached to a Void Jumper unit they see me as part of their brotherhood and are reluctant to ask more of me than they would the other men.

"No problem Sergeant. Just say the word." I gave him a good natured grin that appeared to relax the man.

"Good, stay here until I get the other men into position. When I call you fly out to the front of the building, make noise and make an entry. Don't do any unnecessary heroics."

"Can do." I lowered my face shield and got into position.

The squad leader got on his radio and updated the platoon sergeant of the deteriorating situation and his rescue plan. He then ordered this squad to move quietly along the wood line to the rear of the building. About ten minutes later it was show time.

"Tantiss, go!"

I ran out of the tree line with my lightsaber in one hand and blaster in the other. I activated my thrusters and made it to the building in one giant hop. My movement alerted the terrorists. I think they were expecting a platoon of troopers to show up at their doorstep. Instead they had one Void Jumper with lightsaber blazing. A couple extremists took shots at me from a window, which I easily deflected with my saber. I made it to the main entrance and hit the door running. The full weight of my armor tore the metal door from its hinges flinging it to the floor with a loud bang. Now I had their full attention.

At least ten men were shooting at me. It took all my concentration to keep the blaster fire off me. I wasn't one-hundred percent successful but the armor was effective against most small arms fire. I used my blaster to take out half of the men shooting at me before there was an explosion from the back of the room. Light streamed in from a large hole in the ceiling before a dozen Void Jumpers dropped from the sky. They hovered for a second above the floor firing their blasters before they landed near the hostages, surrounding them, and using their bodies as armored human shields. I continued to fire at the remaining terrorists until only two were left. Those remaining fanatics reached into their side satchels and pulled out thermal detonators.

"Detonators! Get the hostages out of here!" I screamed into my helmet comsystem. The squad leader called for an extraction. The men grabbed up the hostages in one or two arms, chair and all, and blasted their way up and out of the opening they made in the ceiling.

The remaining terrorists turned to me and threw their thermal detonators. With a wave of my hand I used the Force to redirect the bombs away from me and guided them back to their owners' groins. Whack! Ha! I wish I could have seen their surprised expressions when they got a detonator smashing into their gonads, but I was busy blasting my way out of the building. As I exited I could hear the rumble of twin explosions and the heat of the blast warming and blackening my armor with soot.

I thought I was clear but a sniper caught me with a long-range blaster and took out one of my stabilizers. I was a hundred meters in the air when I started to tumble. I fought the urge to puke as I attempted to counter my motion using my remaining functional stabilizers. I realized that I was too low to the ground to perform the necessary maneuvers and I knew hitting the ground at this speed without thrusters was fatal. I was in deep shavit!

Never in my life was I so glad I was a Jedi. I immersed myself deep in the Force and concentrated on slowing down and stabilizing myself. I closed my eyes and visualized myself floating down to the ground.

I must have temporarily fallen into a Jedi trance because the next thing I know an armored gauntlet was knocking on my helmet.

"Anybody home?" I heard the squad leader's familiar voice.

I opened my eyes and realized I was floating motionless about a meter from the ground. I was so surprised by this impressive feat that I lost concentration and dropped to the dirt with a thud.

I rolled over and saw the squad leader and three other void jumpers looking down at me. "No time to nap, Tantiss. Let's get to the tree line before that sniper finds you again."

He didn't have to tell me twice; another blaster bolt hit about twenty meters short of us.

We ran to the trees and took cover. I looked into the woods and saw the rest of the squad performing first aid on the hostages and trying to calm them down. In the distance I could hear reinforcements fly in and drop into the warehouse and surrounding area.

The squad leader came up to me and slapped me on the back. "I thought that REBJ was impressive, but seeing you hover like a parked speeder bike was amazing!"

I lifted up my face shield and grinned. "Thanks. I did much better today than my first mission where I froze up and then puked my guts out. Skywalker's oldest son had to save my butt."

The man scoffed. "I don't believe that. I think you're just being modest."

I didn't argue with the man. I'll let him believe I am the consummate Jedi.

It felt good not to screw up.

.

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**_Entry 46_ **

My unit has been searching for the headquarters of the enemy for the last two weeks. During this time I learned a little about the diminutive aliens. They are not native to Treemar. They came to the planet twelve years ago as immigrants from the planet Lodd. Three hundred refugees came as a group requesting religious asylum. They claimed they were being persecuted for their religious beliefs on their home world. The local government stupidly granted them asylum without first checking with the authorities on Lodd. If they did take the time to do so they would have discovered these Loddites (as they call themselves) were not part of a typical religious organization but were more aptly described as a cult.

Unfortunately this cult isn't the harmless type…you know the ones who play musical instruments and beg for money at the spaceports while handing out literature stating their church followers are the chosen ones. Those type of cults I can handle. No, this is one of those doomsday sects that believes their leader is a god. They have lots of blasters and explosives and in the last year they decided they must cleanse the infidels (non-cult members) from the planet.

I have been using my post-cognitive skills to track the band of terrorists, but they appear to be one step ahead of us all the time. It's like they know a Jedi with my skills is working with the Void Jumpers. They compartmentalize things to the extreme. The soldiers attacking the locals don't know the location of the main base. They are given instructions by their group leader who may or may not know where the main body of the cult is located at any particular time. Soldiers are only briefed on what their mission is. This way they can't reveal any pertinent intelligence.

We caught a break four days ago. A group leader was captured, but committed suicide before he could be interrogated. Fortunately for me, by touching his gear I was able to visualize the home base of the cult. I consulted the maps and talked with planetary cartographers and I think I figured out where they are situated. They may have moved recently, but I am fairly sure I know the location. Tomorrow we will jump into the main base and hopefully put an end to this destructive cult.

.

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**_Entry 47_ **

Well, things did not go as planned. Fortunately my unit didn't have any casualties. We flew over the cult compound, but saw no movement. We thought it was either a trap or they fled. I volunteered to go with a squad to scout the area.

We dropped into a clearing about two hundred meters from the edge of the camp. As we approached it was deathly quiet. All I could hear is the buzzing of insects…a lot of insects. We moved up to the edge of the compound, blasters ready, as a feeling of dread crept up my spine…which is never a good thing when you are a Jedi. I sometimes have trouble determining if what I am sensing is a Force premonition or simply the jitters.

The squad stopped and scanned the encampment using the suits infrared heads-up display inside our helmets. I didn't see anything but small canine looking animals scurrying around the area. I opened my helmets faceplate and that's when the smell hit me. It was the distinctive smell of death. I dry gagged as I stepped back instinctively. I quickly closed my mask and recycled the air out with filtered air. I turned to the squad leader, my stomach still churning. "Something smells very dead around here."

I guess the members of my squad took my word for it. They didn't open their helmets to confirm my assessment. Instead we slowly moved forward. The first few huts were empty, but as we neared a large meeting hall I could hear the buzz of insects grow louder. We kicked in the entry door and rushed in…and then stopped in our tracks. We found the remaining members of the cult. They were all dead. Flies and other insects swarmed around the decaying bodies. I couldn't see any marks on most of the cult members, so I assume they consumed poison. There were a few people with blaster burns on their bodies, but most didn't appear to have any particular trauma associated with their death. Whatever they took must have been quick and painless. Most of the Loddites had a look of serenity on their faces. Mothers still clutched their children in their arms. Couples died holding hands or embracing each other.

"Kriff!" I heard my squad leader swear over our helmet comm system. "Why do people do this?"

I walked up to the corpse of a mother holding a small child that was close to my niece's age. I shook my head in disgust. How can a woman bring a child into this galaxy and then kill their own flesh and blood. Even Darth Vader couldn't kill Luke and he was a Sith! The control this cult had over its members is mind boggling.

The squad leader called in for reinforcements and a forensics team. I went around looking for survivors, but found none. This is not how I wanted this mission to end, but at least it is over.

I get to go home.


	13. Chapter 13

**_Entry 48_ **

I took off from Treemar in my Stealth X and rendezvoused with the _Vazy Princess_ the next day. As I neared the freighter I sent out a comm signal requesting permission to dock. ID10T responded stating the human crew started their sleep cycle an hour earlier.

I slowly navigated towards the ship's hanger. The two large bay doors separated slowly and I could see the flicker of the powerful magnetic field that maintained the atmosphere within the bay. I centered my ship and slowly entered, maneuvering my spacecraft until it sat next to Ben's Stealth X. I powered down, closed the bay doors and confirmed atmosphere integrity before I popped open the canopy. I was surprised to see Zylie awake and pushing the Stealth X ladder over to me. I smiled broadly at the sight of her. She was barefoot and wearing a knee-length, black satin sleep shirt I had purchased for her a few months ago. Usually I just jump out of the ship using the Force to cushion my fall, but if she wanted to greet me I wasn't going to complain.

Once the ladder was locked into position she scrambled up the steps just as I removed my helmet and finished unbuckling my crash webbing. Her beautiful, smiling face popped over the edge of the cockpit before she threw her arms around my neck and gave me a long, sensual kiss. I reach up and embrace her, halfway pulling her into the ship as I deepened the kiss. _Gods it is good to be home!_

Finally we broke apart to catch our breath. She grinned at me mischievously as she ran a finger down my chest. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." I put my hands on the sides of the cockpit intending to stand but she reached down, placed a hand on my chest and firmly pushed me back into a sitting position. I gave her a goofy confused grin. I am not sure what she is up to. Does she want me to get back in the ship and pick her up some blue milk or whatever from the nearest store? "What's up?"

Her grin grew wider as she moved up the ladder even further. "I have always wanted to try something."

By now she is on the top step and staring down at me. I looked up at her confused. "Like what?"

She reached out a bare foot and teased it along the edge of the cockpit. "I wanted to see if it is really possible to make out in the cockpit of a Stealth X."

I laughed thinking this must be a joke. I barely fit in the cockpit of this modified X-Wing. There was no way a second person would fit inside, let alone manage to perform the acrobatic maneuvers necessary to make love within the confines of the ship. I was about to tell her this but she was already in the process of sliding her body down mine until her knees were on my thighs and our faces only centimeters from each other. "Zylie, there is no way this is going to work. Why don't we go back to the cabin where I have the freedom of movement to properly ravish you?"

She gave me that little pout that always gets me. "I thought it would be exciting to do something a little different. You know, put some zing into our marriage."

I frowned. _'Zing into our marriage'?_ Since when did our marriage need more zing? Our relationship is full of zing.

"Come on Talon," she whispered huskily as she tried to unzip my flight suit. "It'll be fun."

She tried to move so she could bring the zipper down all the way, but she just ended up losing her balance and nearly ramming her knee into my crotch. She shifted her weight again and accidently hit the MLD urine collection system activator. I jumped with a yelp when the suction suddenly came on. I think Zylie thought I was getting turned on because she started kissing me as my hand flailed around trying to find the MLD deactivation button. It seemed like forever before I found that off switch. I put my hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her away. "Zylie, I know making out in exotic places may be romantic or even erotic, but this is one place that is physically impossible."

She shook her head. "It's not impossible."

My eyes narrowed. "Oh really. And how do you know that?" I was fairly sure I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it from her. She blushed slightly before answering. "My sister was bragging that she and Ben made out in his Stealth X."

I knew it. Those two sisters are always trying to outcompete each other. I leaned in and kissed her. "Sorry, but I'm much bigger than Ben."

"Don't let my sister hear you say that." She chuckled softly. "Sorry, I was just thinking about you the entire time you were gone. You're right, having a mattress to our backs will be much nicer." She maneuvered herself so one foot was on the floor and a knee on my thigh as she prepared to exit. When she tried to pull herself up she slipped and gave out a scream of pain.

I grabbed her by the waist steadying her. "What's wrong?"

"I think my foot's caught between the seat bracket and the side of the ship."

Using the Force and the strength of my arms I gently tried to pull her up and away from the ship. "Stop!" she shouted out and I could see tears in her eyes. "It's really stuck."

I thought if I could get out of the cockpit maybe she would have more room to maneuver and get herself unstuck, but as soon as I moved she cried out once more. "Stop, stop. Every time you move it hurts."

She leaned into my chest and started crying softly. "I really cluster-kriffed this romantic reunion."

I reached up and brushed her brown hair from her face so I could gaze into her lovely hazel eyes. "I appreciate the gesture and I assure you we will have a romantic reunion, but right now we need to get you out." I tried to keep a straight face as I proposed a possible solution. "I think we are going to need Valla and Ben's help."

She groaned as she buried her head into my chest. "No," she moaned. "I'll never hear the end of this."

I kissed her cheek and smiled. "I'm sure you're correct, but we can't stay here forever."

She made an exasperated sound but then slowly nodded her head. "Can you get my sister's comlink on the ship's communication system?"

"Yes." I was able to reach around Zylie and push in the comlink numbers. "I'll put it on speaker."

A beeping sound emanated from the speaker indicating the comlink was ringing on the other end. Eventually a groggy sounding Valla Skywalker answered the device. "What?"

"Valla I need help in the hanger bay."

I could hear the rustling of bed sheets over the speaker and Ben mumbling something. "What's wrong?"

Zylie blushed brightly. "Just bring some liquid soap or shampoo…and **_come alone_**."

"What?" Valla said a little louder.

"Just do it!" Zylie turned off the comm and dropped her head back to my chest. "I am going to die of embarrassment."

I had to laugh at our predicament. I embraced Zylie and kissed the top of her head. "Don't worry. I won't tell Ben."

Of course I didn't have to tell Ben because he came into the hanger bay right on his wife's heels. Valla was carrying a bottle of shampoo as she gazed around the hanger looking for her sister. I raised a hand and waved. "Over here."

Valla and Ben gave each other a perplexed look before running over to the ship. "What's going on?"

Valla was the first person to figure out the circumstances involving our predicament. She turned to her husband. "Ben, they were trying to make out in the ship."

Ben blushed brightly and I could hear him whisper to his wife. "Did you tell anyone that we…you know?"

Valla was at the bottom of the ladder now, so I couldn't see her, but I can imagine she was giving Ben one of those pouting looks Zylie pulls on me whenever I'm mad at her. "I just told Zylie."

Ben groaned before he looked up at us. "Why do you need shampoo? Are you going to shower in there also?"

I shook my head. "We're stuck."

Ben let out a deep laugh and had trouble containing his amusement. "Do I need to toss a bucket of cold water on you guys?"

Zylie gritted her teeth before yelling at her sister. "Valla get up here with the soap before it starts to swell!"

Ben started laughing hysterically at this point. I don't blame him. She hasn't told them her foot was stuck and was probably swelling up at this point. Zylie looked down and then yelled out. "Hurry it's turning blue!"

That's it, Ben is on the deck just about dying. "Her foot is stuck!" I yelled down at him. "Get your mind out of the gutter!"

Valla made it to the top of the ladder with the shampoo. "What exactly is her foot stuck in?"

Ben started hyperventilating but managed to laugh between gasps of air. I swear his face is as red as his hair!

I grabbed the bottle out of Valla's hands and glowered at her. "It is stuck between the side of the ship and the seat bracket." I leaned forward as far as I could and squirted the soapy liquid in the direction of Zylies foot. I then looked back to my wife. "Does that help at all?"

She grimaced as she tried to dislodge her foot from its confines. Eventually she let out a relieved breath as her foot came free. I quickly levitated her out of the cockpit and slowly lowered to the freighter deck, right next to my laughing cousin. I exited the cockpit and followed Valla down the ladder. Zylie was sitting on the deck massaging her swollen foot and trying to hold back tears. I picked her up gently and cradled her in my arms. "Let's get some ice on that."

Ben was lying on his back taking deep breaths and trying to compose himself, but just when it looked like he had his giggling under control he started laughing again. Valla sat down next to her husband and joined in the laughter while we exited the hanger.

Zylie leaned her head on my shoulder with a mortified expression on her face. "Sorry Talon."

I turned to kiss her. "It was a sweet thought. We just need a bigger cockpit." I turned and looked back in the direction of the hanger. "I'll tell you what. When they go to sleep we'll go to the flight deck of the freighter and make out in the pilot's chair." I gave her a wink before kissing her again. "But first we need to ice down that ankle."

So that is what we did that night. Now my marriage has a ship full of Zing. Ha!

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**_Entry 49_ **

Note to self. Next time Zylie and I make out on the flight deck – turn **_off_** ID10T! That droid doesn't know when to keep his voice synthesizer shut! He's worse than C3PO! Arrggghhh!

.

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**_Entry 50_ **

I keep finding shampoo bottles sitting in weird places around the ship. I swear I am going to shoot my cousin out the airlock. The teasing is getting old!

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**_Entry 51_ **

We were on our way to the planet Sembla to deliver some needed medical supplies when the Grand Master contacted us. Ben and I were on the flight deck when we accepted a Hyperwave transceiver message from Coruscant. My uncle appeared on the communications screen wearing full Jedi robes and a tired look on his face. From his expression I immediately knew this wasn't a social call.

"Ben, Talon, it's good seeing you two again. How are your wives?" I can tell Ben's dad was trying to act upbeat, but his voice was strained and the tightness of his jaw suggested trouble.

"They're both doing fine, Dad," Ben replied warmly. "You usually don't make these cross galactic hyperwave calls unless you have a mission for us. Is there a problem somewhere?"

Luke sighed deeply as he sat back in what looked like his office chair. "I do have a mission for you. Last week a couple of Jedi Knights, both Consulars from the Ossus sub-temple, traveled to the planet Upekzar to do some research on the ancient Sith civilization that once occupied the planet. We lost contact with them a few days ago. Because Ossus is mainly a research temple, we don't have experienced combat trained Jedi there. I'd like you to look into this."

Ben nodded. "No problem. We're currently on the Perlemian Trade Route and not too far from the Upekzar System. We can be there by the end of the day if we leave now."

"Good, good." I could see my uncle drumming his fingers nervously on his desk. "They're probably just having communications problems. Both Jedi are historical researchers and scholars don't have a stellar reputation for adhering to standard operating procedure when it comes to status updates. They probably found a shiny relic somewhere and lost track of time. " Luke hesitated for a moment. "But just in case, I want to send my best Jedi to investigate."

"We'll get packed and be on our way." Ben stared at his father intensely for a long moment. "Is the Force telling you something?"

Luke shook his head. "I haven't had any visions, but I have a sense of unease. I approved the research expedition without an accompanying security detail since the planet has been unoccupied for a millennia…but I should have erred on the side of caution." He chewed on his bottom lip nervously. "I want daily reports. Right now you are the closest Jedi that can handle trouble if it's to be found. I'll send more Knights from Coruscant, but that will take three or four days to make the trip. I'll check to see if the Galactic Alliance can detour a fleet ship to the area."

"We'll find your missing researchers, Dad."

"I have every confidence that you and Talon will do so." He reached forward and pushed a button on his computer keypad. "I'm transmitting information on the two Jedi and the location they were last heard from."

"We'll get right on it." Ben gave a small smile. "How's mom, Hanna and the twins?"

A grin finally crossed Luke's face. I've noticed over the years that my uncle can't talk about my Aunt Mara without smiling. "Your mother is doing her best to talk me into retiring and moving to some romantic tropical island on some ocean planet. I think living on a city-world is getting to her. Your brothers and sister are off on missions on the other side of the galaxy and are good health." Luke stopped suddenly and leaned forward at his desk staring at his view screen. He squinted, straining his eyes to see something. "Is that a bottle of shampoo behind you on the flight deck?"

My head whipped around and spied a bottle of hair conditioner. I swear Ben must be using the Force to move these bottles around because I am positive it wasn't there earlier. "It's not shampoo; it's conditioner." I glowered at my cousin as I stood and grabbed the bottle. "It's nice talking to you Uncle Luke." I cursed at Ben under my breath before punching him on the shoulder and storming off the flight deck.

This joke is getting really, really old! ARRGGGHHHH!

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**_Entry 52_ **

Ben and I are on our way to Upekzar. I read up on the planet, but there wasn't much. It was known that the Sith once occupied the world. By Sith I don't mean a Dark Lord living the Sith beliefs. I actually mean the species of people once called Sith. They were humanoid with red skin and distinctive facial tentacles extending from the sides of their mouths. The species is believed to be extinct. At least nobody has reported seeing pureblood Sith in thousands of years. All that is left is the Sith philosophy. With the death of Palpatine and Lumiya we all hope the Sith are gone for good…but I doubt it. The galaxy is huge. There are thousands of worlds that have never been explored. An entire planet of Sith could still be out there.

Hopefully Upekzar is not one of them. I don't like the idea of me and Ben going against a secret sect of Sith warriors. That would _not_ be fun.


	14. Chapter 14

**_Entry 53_ **

Once we breached the planet's atmosphere a dark sensation of foreboding crept down my spine. This planet radiates evil. The landscape doesn't look too cheerful either. Storm clouds covered most of the planet and I could see blue chain lighting lash out and hop from cloud to cloud. It reminded me of the Sith Force lightning my uncle once described to me. According to the Grand Master, being hit by Force lightning was the worse pain he had ever experienced. He once commented that it must be the nastiest pain that any person could possibly go through. My Aunt Mara was nearby when he said that. She scoffed and said, "Try giving birth to twins."

Ha! I love my aunt's sarcastic sense of humor.

Ben and I flew over a volcanic island that was the last known location of the Jedi researchers. We crisscrossed the island in a searching pattern until we located the Consulars' shuttle sitting at the base of what looked like an extinct volcano.

"There she is." Ben dropped altitude to get a better look. "The shuttle doesn't appear damaged."

I followed Ben's ship as he swooped over the research ship, skimming the landscape, before pulling back up and circling around. From our vantage point I could make out what looked like cave openings on the side of the hill. "They might have went into the caves and got lost. There's no global positioning systems on these abandoned worlds."

"Still, the planet has a magnetic field. They can use a mapping application on their datapad to record their change of compass direction and a simple pedometer to track distance. If they got lost they could reverse their route. That's standard navigation training we learned at the Temple as kids."

"Maybe they got hurt," I suggested as we swung around for a second look.

"There is only one way to find out—get down there and start looking."

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**_Entry 54_ **

We landed between the Consular shuttle and what looked like a cave entrance. Wind whipped at our flight suits as we walked toward the ancient volcano and I really wished I brought my helmet with me. Tiny shards of black volcanic sand hit my face like an out-of-control sandblaster. I had to cup my hands around my eyes to keep the volcanic grit from blinding me.

"Ben!" I yelled out to him over the roaring of the wind. "Why don't people ever get lost somewhere nice? Like the Fashinfest on Coruscant."

Ben chuckled obviously remembering how much trouble we got into the last time we went to that decadent festival full of booze and free love. "I may be an adult, but I don't think my parents will ever approve of me going there again. I would think you wouldn't want to return." He gave me a quick glance revealing a sarcastic smirk. "Unless you enjoy being called in into the Grand Master's office and yelled at."

"If I do go back it will be with Zylie. She keeps me on a short leash."

"Does she make you wear the Vornskr leash while in your quarters?"

I removed my hands from around my eyes long enough to give his shoulder a shove. "Knock it off. I am still mad at you about the shampoo pranks."

We arrive to the largest cave opening and entered, turning on our glowsticks as we clipped them to the front of our flight suits. Once we got out of the wind we were able to locate footprints on the dusty passageway floor. One set was a medium size human footprint; the other prints were huge and wide. Ben squatted down next to the boot impressions. "This looks like this could be our missing human and Barabel Jedi." He stood and began following the trail.

"Is it speciest of me to say I am surprised a Barabel is a Cousular? I usually see them as warriors not intellectuals."

"Yes, you are a speciest," Ben said in a deadpan voice.

"I am not."

"Lets see you hug a Harch then."

I shuddered at the memory of greeting that massive Harch a few months ago. I know it is a sentient species, but it is also a big spider...and I hate spiders. I conceded the point and changed the subject. "The footprints don't indicate anyone was limping. That's good."

"Let's hope it stays that way."

The lava tube we were traversing was about three meters wide and just as tall. It wasn't a tight squeeze, but I was getting a little claustrophobic. We came around a bend and stopped in stunned silence. In front of us was an expansive cavern probably a hundred meters across and two hundred meters high. We moved into the chamber and stepped cautiously over rocks and boulders littering the cavern floor. The ceiling didn't have the standard stalactite formation, but was covered with rock clumps. It looked like a giant had glued man-sized rocks on the ceiling…and didn't do a good job at it. The boulder-strewn floor demonstrated the instability of the cave. I didn't like the idea of the ceiling giving way and crushing us. I lifted my glowstick over my head and spied a large rock fall at the far end of the cavern. That was not a good sign.

"Look at the footprints," Ben called out. As I was gawking at the ceiling he had continued to follow the tracks. "They are all over the place, like they were running around in circles."

I lowered my beam and caught sight of another print…a much larger print. "What the hell is that?" The depressions in the ground were in a long line and protruding sideways from the direction the creature was moving. There were two columns of these tracks and each print ended with a deep sharp depression in the gravelly floor.

"I don't think it is from a biped," Ben remarked as he squatted next to the imprints. "I believe we have a multi-legged creature and by the looks of it there is a large claw at the end of each appendage." He stood and walked around the area holding out his glowstick before reattaching it to his suit. "I can't tell how many legs it has or what species, but it looks like it caught our two researches unawares."

I searched for traces of blood or torn clothing but found none. "Maybe they got away." As my light traversed the floor the beam reflected off something. I picked my way through the rubble and discovered a datapad. I held it up for Ben to see. "They dropped their datapad. Maybe they are lost. Some big creature surprised them, they ran and are now wandering around trying to find a way out."

We circled around the cavern looking for the footprints to break off and out of the immense cavern. I stopped when I heard a noise. It was a low growling sound accompanied by a scrapping and clattering of something moving over the stony ground. Ben's lightsaber immediately ignited. I grabbed my weapon and activated it before moving toward Ben. "Could that be our Barabel? They growl, don't they?"

Ben shook his head as he faced the direction of the sound. "Don't you feel the darkness? This chamber even feels colder. It's like the darkside is pulling the heat out of the cave." He gave me a determined look. "See if the comlink can reach the ship. Have R9 send out a warning that the planet has some sort of large animal living in the cave, possibly a Sithspawn creature."

My eyes widened upon hearing the term Sithspawn. I pulled out my comlink but only got static. "We're too far underground."

He didn't respond, but simply gave a nod of acknowledgement. The sound grew in intensity until something large and fast appeared out of the darkness. The blue and green glow of our lightsabers illuminated a nightmarish sight. The monster was almost three meters in height with red compound eyes and a body that resembled a Nizon Blade Scorpion. The creature walked on six legs and had a segmented body. At the end of two arm-like appendages were large claws that clattered open and closed, echoing throughout the cavern. If its ghastly appearance wasn't bad enough, its presence in the Force was stifling. The darkside pressed down on my conscious like a heavy blanket. It was frightening to feel so much darkness projecting from such a ghastly creature. "Stang!Its darkside and as big as an Acklay!"

Ben moved forward and swung his blade at the creature. The monster's exoskeleton was barely scratched by the lightsaber strike. A now angry Sithspawn scorpion reared back on its rear legs before it sprung forward to attack.I pulled out my blaster and fired off a couple shots. It hissed and stumbled back, but I think it was more out of surprise than pain.

"Let's get out of here." I didn't like retreating but we needed to warn any Jedi sent as backup. Ben nodded in agreement as we stepped toward the tunnel entrance. The creature must be sentient enough to know what we were doing because it quickly scuttled over the rocky terrain and blocked our exit.

"Oh that's great." I looked around. "I guess we will have to find another way out."

As I stepped backwards the creature suddenly charged. The sight of a three meter scorpion running towards caused me to panic and I ended up stumbling on the rocky floor. I fell on my butt just the creature reached Ben.

I quickly jumped to my feet and ran forward to help Ben who was swinging his lightsaber wildly trying to keep the monstrous pinchers from separating his head from his body. I moved to the creature's side and slashed at its abdomen. My saber scratched the surface of the scorpion's rough, scaly body, but did little damage. As I went in for another strike I suddenly found myself in the air hanging upside down. Claws at the end of the creature's split tail had grabbed my ankles and was suspending me about two meters above the rock floor. I did a hanging sit up and shot off a couple blaster rounds into the large twisting appendage. That just pissed it off even more and I ended up thrown across the cavern. If I didn't have the Force I would have splattered against the cavern wall. I got back to my feet and ran forward into battle. I gathered the Force around me and did a powerful Force shove. I succeeded to make the monster stumble. "Force shoves! Together!" Ben understood immediately and we combined out power to throw the creature about five meters across the chamber. Unfortunately the giant scorpion was still between the exit and us. It got back to its six feet and started moving forward cautiously. Ben and I retreated hoping to find another way out when we heard blaster fire coming from the direction of the rock fall I noticed earlier. White beams poured out from a meter wide hole in the rubble. The blaster stopped and a green Barabel head poked out. "Jedi! This way!"

Ben and I sprinted toward the Barabel when the Sith creature screamed. Or at least I think it screamed. It felt like the sound originated and reverberated within my head. I fell down to my knees and clamped my hands over my ears. It was then I smelled a sickly musty odor. A nauseous dizziness overwhelmed me and I closed my eyes and trying to regain my equilibrium. I could hear the sound of blasters and screams. When I opened my eyes what I saw wasn't Ben or the cavern…it was spiders. There were thousands of spiders: large and small arachnids of all types crawling around me. I screamed when they rushed towards me, moving up my body and into my flight suit.I could feel their hairy legs moving down my undershirt and into my briefs and snuggling against parts of my body I never ever wanted a spider near. My panic became full blown when tiny spiders moved up my nose and into my open screaming mouth. I forcefully expelled air out of my nose, trying to dislodge the small creatures moving through my nasal passages. I spit frantically trying to get the creatures out of mouth, but others found their way in. As I shrieked I inadvertently crushed their hairy bodies between my teeth releasing the creatures' foul tasting circulatory fluid into my mouth. I cringed at the sensation of their tiny legs tickling the back of my throat as they moved down my esophagus. I didn't think it was possible for this nightmare to get worse…but then they started to bite. Every nerve in my body flared in incredible pain. At this point I wished a Sith shot Force lightning at me just to kill these kriff'n bugs. I deactivated my lightsaber and started using it like a hammer, whacking at my legs and torso trying to smash those eight-legged demons from Hell.

I could hear Ben's voice, but couldn't see him. I felt invisible arms wrap around me, lifting me up. I then felt another set of strong muscular arms pulling me somewhere. I was still screaming, frantic to get the spiders off of me.

"No! No!" It was Ben's voice. Through the blur of arachnids I saw my cousin standing next to a Barabel before the reptilian creature turned his weapon on Ben and fired. As my cousin crumbled to the floor the Barabel aimed its blaster at me and squeezed the trigger. As the blaster bolt traveled in my direction I recall feeling relieved. It would kill me, but at this point death was preferable over the grisly madness I was experiencing.

Then there was blackness—and with it—welcome relief from the terror.

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**_Entry 55_ **

Of course, I wasn't dead…I'm writing this journal after all. I woke up slowly and found myself lying on the ground in the fetal position with gravel painfully jabbing into my skin...but the real ache was in my head. I have a throbbing headache that is familiar; it is the aftereffects of a stun bolt (my brother Jaden and I once decided to stun each other to see how it felt—It hurt!). As my brain cleared, I remembered those spiders. I jumped up into a sitting position and began slapping my clothing, searching for those horrific arachnids.

"It wasss an hallucination."

I looked over to my right and located the Barabel that shot me. Currently his weapon was holstered as he sat on his haunches. Next to him was an unconscious Ben Skywalker. On the other side of me I heard muffled cries. I turned and located the second missing Jedi. He was sitting on the ground, his knees up under his chin, rocking incessantly while blubbering like a madman.

I turned back to the Barabel. "What was a hallucination?"

The large Jedi cocked his head to the side and blinked its large eyes at me slowly. "Whatever you saw. Whatever frightened you after fighting the Rhak-skuri."

I tried to stand, but the effort made me lightheaded. "What's a Rhak-skuri?"

He motioned his scaled head in the direction of the hole I must have entered through. "The large creature with six legs and pinchers. It is a Sithspawn." He pointed a thumb to his chest. "This one is Sarkik, Jedi Consular. This one researches Sith legendssss," Sarkik said with a common Barabel lisp that draws out words ending in an _S_ sound. "It produces pheromonesss. It causes humans to have hallucinations." He pointed a clawed finger to his temple. "Barabel's have strong mindsss. We can resist."

I crawled over to Ben to check on him. I could see his chest rising, so I know he is alive. I looked over to the Barabel. "Why did you stun us?"

The reptilian blinked a few times before answering. "To save you. To save your mind." He pointed toward his companion. "Jedi Stebar has gone mad. If exposed too long the phermonesss make you insane. I stunned you to keep your mind safe."

Ben groaned and turned to look at me. "Talon?"

"It's me." I grabbed him under one arm and helped him into a sitting position. "Are you the person who got me into this rock shelter?"

He nodded. "I pulled you toward the hole in the wall and then I saw…" He stopped and blanched.

"What?" I pointed to the Barabel. "Jedi Sarkik said that thing we were fighting has pheromones that can give us nightmare hallucinations. What did you see?"

He shook his head. "I'll tell you later. It's private." He glanced over to Sarkik. "Is there another way out of this tunnel?"

"No." The Barabel snapped his sharp teeth together that I recognized as a sign of irritation. "This one tried to slip by the creature you fought, but it is too strong. Its pheromones have little effect, but it is too physically strong for me. If I die, Jedi Stebar dies. He may recover with neural reconstruction." He pointed a claw hand at me. "Are you two the only Jedi?"

"More are coming. We just have to hold out for a few more days."

The Barabel dropped his head slightly. "Good, because this one is hungry."

Oh great. I'm trapped with a hungry Barabel. Hopefully I won't soon be on the menu.

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**_Entry 56_ **

For the last day-and-a-half we've been holed up in a tunnel partially blocked off by boulders and rubble. Twice the Rhak-skuri tried to get through the rocks to us but it is too big to reach through the small meter-wide opening. Unfortunately, that damn thing has used its pheromones at least one more time. I must be more susceptible than the others because I immediately began seeing the spiders. It doesn't matter that I know it is a hallucination, when I am under the influence of the pheromones I can't think clearly. During those frightening moments it is all very real. Ben hasn't told me what he sees; I don't think it is because he doesn't want to tell me. I believe he doesn't want to talk about it in front of the other Jedi. When the creature attacks us using its pheromones our Barabel Jedi stuns us. I would complain about the pounding headaches the stunbolts produce, but I would rather have a permanent migraine than lose my mind fighting arachnids. I don't want to end up like Jedi Stebar. He continues to moan and rock back and forth. I'm not certain neural reconstruction will help him at this point.

I'm getting hungry and thirsty. We shared what food and water we carried. I know it may be a couple more days before help arrives. Hopefully we can hold off that long.

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**_Entry 57_ **

Three stunbolts later and we are still waiting. Jedi Sarkik may think he is resistant, but he is now beginning to suffer from the Rhak-skuri pheromones. He is becoming erratic. He mumbles to himself and is very jumpy. I really don't relish the idea of a hallucinating barabel with a functional blaster. If he did start hallucinating there is little we can do to help him. Barabels are resistant to stunbolts. If he comes after us while experiencing some nightmarish alternate reality…we might have to kill him. I hope that doesn't come to that.


	15. Chapter 15

**_Entry 58_ **

I was sleeping when a noise woke me. I put my glowrod on low and moved to the opening in the rocks and peered into the dark cavern. I almost screamed out in delight when I saw a glowstick moving in the distance. Somebody was coming to our rescue. Unfortunately, it looked like just one person. I crawled over to Ben and shook his shoulder. He mumbled in protest before opening his eyes. "What?"

"Someone's here."

"Who?"

"I reached out with the Force and felt a very familiar presence. "My dad."

Ben jumped to his feet and gazed through the opening. "I sense him also." He pulled out his comlink. "Mark? Can you hear me?"

It took a few seconds, but he responded. "Hey Ben. Is everybody okay?"

"No, we have one injured, but don't worry about us. There is a monster down here-a sithspawn. You have to get out of here and get backup. Get out of here!"

Ben yelled into the comlink frantic to get my father out of danger. I'm watching the bobbing light in the distance as it continued to approach. Ben yells out the warning once more. This time he wakes Jedi Sarkik who jumps to his feet and pushes me aside so he can look out.

"Don't worry it’s my…"

I didn't get to complete my sentence because I was drowned out by an ear-piercing shriek. It was the Rhak-skuri. I grabbed my comlink and start begging my father to turn around, but he doesn't answer. I look over the Barabel's shoulder and I see my father entering the cavern with a glowstick in hand and another attached to his clothing. I saw Sarkik switch the blaster from stun to kill preparing to shoot and distract the beast.

My father sauntered into the cavern like he doesn't have a care in the world and he's wearing an outfit I've never seen him in before. It is red armor over a black bodysuit and a cape. A cape? My father hates capes. He used to make fun of Lando all the time (behind his back of course). He was walking toward us when that Sithspawn scorpion intercepted him.

Dad ignited his lightsaber, his blade bathing the cavern in blue light. He thrust out his left hand and Force shoved the creature back. I was hoping he would now get the hell out of there and wait for backup, but he doesn't. Instead he starts talking to the monster in some strange indecipherable language. As far as I knew my father only spoke basic. He may know swear words in about a dozen languages, but he was only fluent in Basic. I was completely at a loss as to what was going on. I listened carefully, trying to make out my father's words.

"Akida zuti salini klase tu'saen!" My father screamed at the creature. Whatever he said caught the attention of not only the Sithspawn, but also our Barabel Jedi Consular.

"He speaks to it!" Jedi Sarkik growled.

Ben and I are trying to elbow the Barabel out of our way, but it is hard to move a Barabel. I had to be satisfied with catching glimpses of my father over Jedi Sarkik's broad shoulders. The scorpion moved closer to my father, but its head was down, and its tail was dragging behind and not in the cocked attack position.

"Mezdi dabar nu xuontai j'us!" my father yelled out while removing his armored gauntlets. "Mezdi dabar nu xuontai j'us!" he repeated before he smacked his gloves across the creature's head like one would cuff a misbehaving vornskr (not that I ever tried that). The creature cringed backwards before it turned and slowly crawled away with a submissive posture. It looked back once but my dad yelled at it in that foreign language and the Sithspawn turned and fled. My father deactivated his lightsaber as he watched the beast retreat.

I was ecstatically happy, but Jedi Sarkik was now visibly shaken. The large Jedi turned to Ben and me and raised his blaster. "That one speaks Sith! Jedi Sarkik studied the language. He commanded the beast to leave. He is Sith!" He then shoved his blaster out of the opening and prepared to shoot my father. Ben and I immediately grabbed Sarkik's arm and tried to wrestle the weapon from him, but the Barabel shrugged us off easily. When he went to fire again, I reacted. I activated my lightsaber and slashed the end of the blaster off. Sarkik hissed at me and drew his lightsaber. We both stood there saber-to-saber as Ben begged us to put down our weapons. "Talon, you destroyed his blaster. He can't hurt your dad."

I wasn't quite sure if that was true or not. Once my dad arrived at our location he would have to face a crazy Barabel with a lightsaber. I know Sarkik is a researcher, but if my dad is not expecting to be attacked by the people he is rescuing, Sarkik might get the jump on him. "Ben, you and I know our Jedi friend here is suffering from pheromone exposure. He's become unstable. I can't risk him hurting my father."

"He is Sith!" Sarkik screamed.

Ben was behind me trying to make peace. "Sarkik, that is Talon's father and my former Master he is _not_ Sith."

The crazed Barabel reached through the rock opening and tried to pull some of the boulders out of the way so he could squeeze through. I shoved my lightsaber between him and the opening. "Put down your weapon or I will make it so you can't fight ever again."

"Talon please. You can't kill a Jedi. He's sick."

"He wants to kill my father." I edged my way to the rock wall forcing the Barabel away from the opening. Jedi Sarkik crouched into a fighting position when I heard Ben's lightsaber ignite behind me. I could see the green glow of his weapon illuminating the walls and I wondered at whom he was pointing his weapon. I stood absolutely still as my stomach dropped in apprehension. I would have to stand down if Ben was intent on stopping me. I could never hurt my cousin.

I was infinitely relieved when Ben stepped up next to me, his saber targeting the Barabel Jedi. "Sarkik, put your weapon down. You are not in your right mind. We know this man. He is a retired Jedi. He's here to help."

"Just because he speaks Sith, doesn't mean he is Sith. You understand the Sith language and you're not Sith." I tried to reason with Sarkik, but his long exposure to the Sithspawn pheromones obviously damaged his mind and paranoia was kicking in.

Jedi Sarkik kept mumbling, "Sith, Sith! He's here to kill us. He controls the Sithspawn. He will turn us to the darkside."

We stood there for what seems like an eternity, our weapons activated and pointed at each other. My heart was beating rapidly and I began to perspire from the stress. Sarkik's eyes were darting back and forth nervously, keeping and eye on both Ben and me. I think he was either trying to comprehend what was happening or trying to figure out the best way to attack.

We all jumped when my father stuck his head through the rock opening, flashed us a big grin and said, "What's going on?"

Before the Barabel could react my father put out his hand and Force-snatched that lightsaber right out of the Barabel's hand. He deactivated it and tossed it to Ben. "Stop playing around and let's get going."

Ben deactivated his own weapon and clipped it on his belt. "Jedi Sarkik you have a decision to make. Get Jedi Stebar and come with us or stay here alone and wait for somebody else to rescue you."

Sarkik pointed a clawed finger toward my father who is still grinning like an idiot. I guess he is just happy to find us. "He wears the clothing of a Sith."

My dad frowned as he looked down at his outfit. "It's the uniform of an Imperial Knight. I just came from Bastion. Emperor Fel is trying to convince me to train his new Knights. I told him if he gave me a uniform I would think about it." His grin grew wider as he looked at me. "I think your mother will be impressed."

I suppressed a shudder. My brother and I discovered my father's fetish for costumes when we were very young. Luckily for my younger self, I was blissfully unaware that it's not normal for parents to have Mandalorian and Stormtrooper armor in their bedroom closet.

My father pulled away some the stones to enlarge the opening and motioned for us to follow. Sarkik stared at my dad for a few seconds before he reluctantly walked over to a mumbling Jedi Stebar, picked the deranged man up and tossed him onto his shoulder. We let the two Jedi go first and followed behind with my father.

I glanced at my dad with a million questions in my head. I think he knew what I was thinking because he gave a sheepish smile and said, "I'll explain everything when we get into the shuttle."

I couldn't wait to hear this explanation.

.

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**_Entry 59_ **

We followed Jedi Sarkik through the dark and winding lava tube we had entered from days earlier. It was a little nerve-racking to have an angry Barabel in the lead and a dangerous Sithspawn creature somewhere to our we exited the mountain and found ourselves on open ground under overcast sky. I was relieved to see the wind had mercifully died down to a soft breeze and not the sandblasting gales we experienced on our arrival.

In the distance I could see our ships. Next to our StealthX's and the tiny Consular ship was a large and extremely luxurious Royal Induparian shuttle. It was the ship the Prince of Indupar gave my parents for their personal use. Jedi Sarkik slowed his march toward the ships when Jedi Staber, hanging over the Barabel's shoulder, started alternating between incoherent muttering and panicked shrieks. The Barabel brought his free hand up and gave his friend a calming pat on his back while whispering something to the injured Jedi.

"Wow," my dad whispered to me. "He's in bad shape. Hopefully neural regeneration might help. Your Aunt Mara had the procedure for a brain injury. This was before you were born…before she found me on Wayland." My father pulled a remote out of his pocket and activated the boarding ramp of his ship lowering it as we neared. When we reached the Royal shuttle, Jedi Sarkik moved away from us and stomped towards his ship.

"Where are you going?" Ben called out.

The Barabel turned and bared his teeth. "This one has a functional shuttle."

"Jedi Sarkik, you've been affected by the pheromones. I don't think you're in any shape to fly."

The Barabel didn't stop but walked backwards toward his ship as he pointed an accusing clawed finger toward us. "This one will not travel with…one who talks to Sithspawn."

"Sarkik, we told you his not a Sith. He's my father. Come back." I intended to follow the Jedi but my dad put out a large hand stopping me. "Let him go. He'll get back all right. Those shuttles practically fly themselves."

I was going to argue, but I realized there was no deterring a Barabel once they made up their mind. My shoulders slumped in defeat. "Fine." I turned to my dad. "Why _are_ you here? Did the Grand Master send you?"

My father motioned for us to follow him into his ship. We walked up the large boarding ramp and into the roomy crew area where we moved toward the galley dining area. My father tossed his gauntlets on a table before he squeezed his large frame into a booth seat. Ben and I sat down across from him. "To answer your question the Grand Master did send me. I happened to be in the area when I decided to give him a call. Once he realized I was only a few hours from your location he asked me to check up on you."

I sat back in my seat and stared at my father suspiciously. "You were simply flying around the outer rim territories?"

A lopsided smile crossed my father's face. "Bastion is in the outer rim. I told you I was visiting Emperor Fel."

"Never mind that," Ben interrupted. "How did you get that creature to stand down?"

My father shrugged a meaty shoulder. "Your Barabel friend was correct. I spoke Sith to the creature and commanded it to go away." He pointed a finger to his temple. "Remember I know what Palpatine knew. He learned the language from his Master, Darth Plagueis."

Ben chuckled and gave a disbelieving shake of his head. "I know it was an awful experience for you to be temporarily possessed by the spirit of the Emperor reborn…but your ordeal ended up to be extremely lucky for my family. First you save my mother using a Sith resurrection technique and then you rescue us using the Sith language."

My father gave us a strange look. "Yep, having old yellow eyes' memories trapped in my head has been extremely lucky for all of us. It was almost like fate." He pressed his hands against the table and stood slowly. "We better make a report to the Grand Master and have him put this planet off limits to Jedi…and for everybody else for that matter."

Ben slid out of the booth seat and moved toward the cockpit. "I'm on it."

My father went to follow but I called out. "Dad, come here."

For a second, I sensed a pang of guilt emanating from my father before he clamped down on his emotions. "What is it?" He gave me his most innocent look, which is a key giveaway that he is hiding something.

I stood and walked over to him so we could converse without Ben overhearing. "You weren't just cruising around the outer rim taking in the sights. Why _were_ you here?"

"I told you, I was on my way back from Bastion. Emperor Fel wanted my opinion of his Imperial Knight training program. I wanted to see my niece and great nephew. It's been a while since I've seen that side of the family. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

I shook my head slowly. I know there is no such thing as a coincidence when it comes to my father. "Are you telling me Emperor Fel contacted you and asked you to come out to Imperial space? You weren't the one who initiated the conversation with the Emperor?"

He blushed slightly. "Now that I think about it, I called to see how Jaina was doing. We got talking about the training of the Knights. She knew I was training the Prince and asked me to come out to compare training regimen notes. I told her I didn't know if I could break away because the Queen keeps me busy. That's when Jaina said she would ask the Emperor to make an official request. The Queen wants to keep good relations between the Imperials and the Indupar Crown world, so she sent me to Bastion and that's the story."

"Yeah, that is a story." I scoffed. "I think it is more likely that my son was consulting the time stream and told you what trouble I was going to be in. You two then concocted a plan to make it look like a mere coincidence that you are in the area so I wouldn't be angry with him for snooping around my possible timelines. That would explain how you didn't seem at all surprised by the appearance of a giant Sithspawn scorpion! Or three Jedi in a lightsaber standoff."

My father took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Would you have preferred a mass slaughter of Jedi once your backup arrived? I speak Sith. I can command the creatures. And they listen because they can sense the residual darkness within me. I never lost the psychic darkside stench that Palpatine imprinted on me before I forced his spirit out of my body. His memories haunt me, but if I can use some of the knowledge for good…then what's the harm in that?"

"I knew it. Marcus is still checking up on me." I shook my head slowly. "Why didn't he send you right away before Ben and I had to endure repeated stun bolts! You must have known at least a week ago for you to travel to Bastion…" I pointed to his uniform. "Get outfitted in this costume, fly out to where we were and then save us. Why didn't he simply send you straight to this planet to save Jedi Sarkik and Staber? Or why didn't he just prevent them from coming here in the first place?"

He ran an agitated hand through his hair. "By the time Marcus discovered the problem the two consulars were already trapped. In the timelines where I go to save the Jedi—and you and Ben are not here—the situation ends badly. Without you two, Sarkik doesn't calm down. In some timelines he attacks me and I am forced to kill him. In other timelines Sarkik murders Jedi Staber to prevent him from falling into the clutches of what he believes is a Sith and then he kills himself because he is positive I intend to turn him to the darkside. If I don't come to this planet the Jedi backup is slaughtered. The only scenario where all of us survive is when you and Ben are here with the two Jedi and I come alone."

"Marcus was willing to risk my life and Ben's to save two Jedi he never met?" I wasn't sure what I thought about that. I am proud of Marcus for doing the right thing, but I could have gone the rest of my life without the terrifying images of spiders crawling into my nasal cavities, ears and mouth. I get a chill down my spine just thinking about it.

"It wasn't just the consular's lives on the line." My father gazed at me grimly. "If I told Luke to abandon the Jedi, he wouldn't. A rescue party would be sent, no matter what I told the Grand Master...and it would include his best fighters...Kyp, Valin, Anakin, Jak and Owen Skywalker and Corran Horn as their leader...all dead."

"Ohhh," I groaned knowing it had to be a tough decision for Marcus. I looked up at my father sadly. "Marcus did the right thing, but please tell me you didn't have to use the darkside to save us."

Dad shook his head. "I just used the knowledge within me to tell the Sithspawn to leave. You don't have to worry about a repeat of what happened on Kavan."

"Good, good."

What happened on the planet Kavan is not something any of us would want to repeat. My father had used a darkside technique to save my Aunt Mara after she was poisoned by my cousin Jacen. I am still haunted by the memory of my dad's yellow, Sith-stained, eyes. He later used the Force to wipe Jacen's memory of the event and his involvement with Lumiya, the Dark Lady of the Sith. It was a horribly upsetting time for the entire family. It was also a secret the entire family decided to keep from the public and any family members who didn't already know.

"Don't be mad at Marcus for checking up on you, he's been punished enough." My father put his hand on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "He was traumatized by what he saw in the timelines. He came to me trembling and in tears. If we did nothing, the rescue party, which included three of his cousins, were massacred. If you and Ben are here and I didn't come to the rescue… both of you die a horrific death." My father visibly shuddered at the thought.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to know, but curiosity overwhelmed me. "How did I die in those timelines?"

He hesitated for a moment. "You were eaten by a crazed and hungry Barabel. Sarkik was slowly going insane from the pheromones. His idea to stun you was working, but he never stunned himself because he knew stun bolts have very little effect on his species. He was resistant to the Sithspawn, but not immune. In the time it would take your Jedi backup to travel from Coruscant to here, Sarkik grows completely insane. He stuns you and while the Sithspawn creature produced its pheromones he finally snaps. He kills all of you and then eats the bodies. Backup arrives, but they are no match for the creature. Eventually the area is put off limits. There is a memorial for the lost Jedi at the temple where your family grieves and never fully recovers from our loss." He put his other hand on my shoulder and leaned closer to me, his words just above a whisper. "We can't lose you. You have a wife, son, brother, niece, cousins and two parents that love you dearly." He gazed at me sadly before he pulled me into a fatherly hug. "I'm so glad you and Ben are alright." He broke contact and wiped a tear from his eye. "I love you so much."

"It's okay Dad," I pulled away from my father a bit shaken from his emotional display. "We're fine now."

Ben exited the cockpit. "I contacted my father. He's recalling the Jedi and putting out an official decree that all Jedi stay clear of this planet. He will also notify the Galactic Alliance of the danger." He stopped and looked between my father and me. "What's wrong?"

I gave my dad a sidelong look, not sure if he wanted Ben to know what Marcus did for us. He gave me a nod and then turned to Ben. "Marcus sent me. He saw the danger in the time stream. It wasn't a coincidence."

Ben smiled slightly. "I thought it was something like that." He hesitated a moment. "Does my dad know about the seers?"

"Sure," my father said slowly. "Sort of. He's aware of them, but he doesn't know Marcus is training to become one."

"Does he know the seers are trying to control the future," I asked quietly.

"What?" My dad blanched. "Did Marcus tell you that?"

"No, but it is obvious they are willing to manipulate the future by ensuring certain timelines come to fruition."

My dad looked down at the floor, shuffling his boots nervously. "The seers want what is best for the galaxy. I don't know if they were concerned about you and Ben. Marcus was the one who told me. He loves you and wants you alive. If the seers sent me, then I would worry."

My brow furrowed in confusion. "Why is that?"

My dad gave a nervous chuckle. "If they are interested in you, then you play a crucial role in the future they are trying to create. In that case you never know if you are the master of your own fate." His voice took a lower tone. "You'll never know the extent of their manipulation, and I can guarantee you will be constantly monitored." He looked at Ben and me and smiled. "Don't worry, I don't think you two are on the seers' radar…just Marcus."

I was confused at to what he was getting at. "Do you mean Marcus has _us_ on his radar or Marcus is on the seer's radar?"

Dad looked to the ceiling of the ship and then shrugged. "It's probably both."

.

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**_Entry 60_ **

From the viewport of my dad's shuttle we watched the consular ship take off. Ben immediately contacted the Jedi subtemple on Ossus advising them to keep a look out for their returning Jedi. I wanted to get off this Sithspawn planet right away, but my dad insisted on feeding us first. We were starving, so I didn't protest too much.

As we sat in the galley eating roast bantha sandwiches and fried tubers, I glanced over at my father and admired his outfit. I have to admit, the Empire always had impressive uniforms. "You're not really considering leaving your grandson to train Imperial Knights, are you?"

My father took a bite from his sandwich and chewed silently before answering. "Not if I don't have to."

"Why would you ever have to? You're not part of the Empire. It's not like Fel can order you there."

My dad shrugged. "Ossus is closer to Upekzar than Bastion…I probably could have made an excuse to visit the sub-temple, but Marcus insisted I go to Bastion under the pretense of checking out the training. It makes me wonder why."

Ben and I gazed at my father inquisitively. "You believe he had another motive?"

My dad chuckled. "The one thing I know about seers is they don't like telling you their full plan…and Marcus is a seer in training." He hesitated before continuing. "He'll deny there's a hidden agenda when it comes to me going to Bastion, but I think he wanted me there for a reason."

"Why would he keep that a secret from you?" I had to ask because this didn't make sense. "Marcus can trust us."

My father shrugged. "I know Marcus keeps secrets from me when it comes to what he sees in the time stream. Keeping secrets is his prerogative. He may be your son and my grandson, but he will be King and a seer…he can literally do what he wants. I can't control him. The seers can't even control him. He can see their manipulations and he has political power over them." My dad grinned. "They're wary of him...I can tell. I don't think they can see him clearly in the time stream. I know he has baffled them a few times. When he snuck out of the palace to stowaway on your ship, Ema and the Queen immediately went to the seers and asked them to locate the Prince, but they couldn't. He's in their blind spot. I think that scares them…but they need him. They enjoy the protection of the Indupar monarchy and they like having access to a person with power and money. I think they offered to train Marcus as a seer so he will feel some allegiance toward them."

"That doesn't sound like they're scared of him," I pointed out. "They just want to use him."

"That's what I thought at first." My dad's grin grew broader. "But then I discovered the seers have politely requested that Marcus not enter their meditation chambers."

I shrugged. "So? They wouldn't let me in either. They like to maintain their privacy."

My father shook his head. "Not really. I've been in their meditation room. The Queen and Ema have been inside. Only you and Marcus have been asked not to enter. Why do you think that is?"

Ben ventured a guess. "Because Marcus and Talon have post-cognitive abilities."

"Exactly. This means they don't want Marcus or you to know what's gone on in that room in the past."

I gave my dad a curious look. "What are they hiding?"

My father finished his sandwich before pausing in thought. "I don't know…but maybe it's time for Marcus to find out."


	16. Chapter 16

**_Entry 61_ **

We said our goodbyes to my father before returning to our StealthX's. I was disturbed by our earlier conversation. Were the seers up to no good? And if so, would the Grand Master be furious at Ben and me for not revealing our suspicions earlier?

Ben obviously noticed my sullen mood as we walked to our ships. "Are you upset with your dad or Marcus?"

I shook my head. "No, they were doing what they had to do for the greater good." I paused for a moment. "Do you think we should tell your dad about the seers and what they're doing?"

"Yes…" Ben said slowly. "But I would want to talk to Marcus and the Queen about that first. My father knows the existence of the seers, but he sees them as any other Force user having visions that may or may not come to pass. Once he becomes aware of their accuracy…well then he'd would want to travel to Indupar to visit. Once on planet there is a very good chance he would come in contact with your son."

"And then he will know about my relationship to the Prince of Indupar."

There was a short pause before Ben responded. "Would it really be that bad? Mom and dad can keep a secret; you only have to look as far as Jacen and his brush with the darkside to see that. My father would probably be relieved to hear about Marcus."

"Why relieved?"

"Right now my dad thinks your father left the Jedi Order and Coruscant because of what he was forced to do on Kavan and Myrkr."

I sighed deeply. "Ben, my father _did_ leave the Jedi Order because of those things. He didn't even know about Marcus back then. Only leaving Coruscant was because of Marcus."

"That's true...your dad quit long before he knew he had a grandson." He gave me a strange look. "To be honest, I never believed your father left the Jedi Order because of the fiasco with Jacen."

My brow furrowed in confusion. "What?"

"We were all in on the cover-up, including my father. The Grand Master asked your dad to perform the memory rub on Jacen. I can't see him leaving the Jedi order over that."

I didn't want to tell Ben that I had the same suspicions. I always believed Jacen had something to do with the plague that killed dozens of royals on Hapes, but there was no evidence to prove the connection. If Jacen was involved, only my father would know the truth since he was able to see Jacen's thoughts as he did the memory rub. To add to my suspicions, after returning from Myrkr my dad started acting strange. He disappeared with the commander of Tenel Ka's personal guard for a few weeks without filing a flight plan. That had me wondering if those two were off getting rid of evidence...but that's pure speculation on my part. I once asked my father where he went and what he did and he responded that, _'Some things should remain a secret'_.

I ran my hand through my hair and turned to my cousin. "Ben, if there was another reason, dad didn't tell me."

That was the truth.

"Maybe…" Ben sounded very unsure. "Still, it would help my dad to know that Mark left Coruscant and stayed away because of his grandson and not because of any lingering bad feelings."

"I have no idea how anybody can think my dad harbors lingering bad feelings…not when he has that constant goofy grin on his face. He's happy…and he has another costume to bring home to my mother."

Ben chuckled. "You told me about his little fascination with costumes. I have to admit that uniform looks much better than the Jedi robes."

I smiled. "Marcus needs to get an awesome looking uniform for the Indupar Knights."

"I'm sure your father will take care of that."

"He probably will." I looked up to my astromech droid sitting behind the cockpit. "R9 open the canopy." The droid complied and I used a Force enhanced jump to get into the cockpit of my fighter. I watched Ben do the same. Before we sealed out ships I called out. "Let's go home and back to our ladies!"

.

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**_Entry 62_ **

I got a very warm homecoming upon docking with the _Vazy Princess._ This time Zylie didn't try to climb into the cockpit with me, but instead dragged me back to our quarters to celebrate our reunion. Of course I'd been living in a cave for the last few days with no shower or deodorant so she quickly shoved me out of the cabin and told me to take a shower. I went to the 'fresher but it was locked. I listened to the door and heard the sonic shower on…and then giggling. Damn it! Ben and Valla were doing it in the shower and now I have to wait! We definitely need a second 'fresher on this ship.

.

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**_Entry 63_ **

The last week has been somewhat boring. No missions—just simple trading runs. I really want to get back to Indupar to see my son, but we have deliveries set up for the next month.

.

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**_Entry 64_ **

We will be on Coruscant two days from now. I like it when our work brings us there. I get to see my brother, his wife and my little niece and Ben can see his family. Sometimes the Grand Master has us talk to the younger Jedi about our missions and what it is like to do work as a Guardian or a Sentinel.

.

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**_Entry 65_ **

We arrived to Coruscant today. Ben and Valla went off to see the Skywalker family. Zylie and I stayed behind so we could make arrangements for Princess. The kennel that usually takes care of her went out of business so we have to find somebody else crazy enough to care for a Vornskr. We called all around, but no luck. We were about to just leave her on the ship and check in with her twice a day when Zylie got a call from her father. Unexpected business brought him to the city-world and he wanted to get together. Of course he has his crew that takes care of his vornskr. His original animals died but I was told he has a new vornskr he purchased from a breeder on Myrkr. He offered to take care of Princess and I was more than willing to pawn her off on him. Maybe if I am lucky I can convince him to keep her. Ha! I'll never be that lucky.

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**_Entry 66_ **

I went to my brother's house and was ambushed by my little niece who Force jumped into my arms and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. I hugged her and then gave her a tickle that got her giggling. I wish I had moments like these with my son when he was this age. I held Jessa up above my head and smiled brightly. "How's my favorite little girl?"

"Good," came her reply. I see she is getting more teeth. She is cute. I put her on the floor and then gave my brother a hug and his wife Jysella a kiss on the cheek. Zylie greeted the two and then grabbed up Jessa in her arms and snuggled with her. I can tell Zylie wouldn't mind having a child of her own. She is great with Marcus, but she met him when he was nine years old and doesn't see him that often. I can tell she wants to be a mom. Maybe I will talk to her about it again. Last time she demurred because she didn't want to raise a child on a ship and she didn't want to leave her dad's trading operation. Maybe there is something she could do for the business on a planet like Coruscant…or Indupar. I should look into it.

"I heard you saw dad last month." My brother gave me a smirk as he led me into his family room. "He had to save you and Ben from being eaten by a Barabel."

I rolled my eyes. "I wish dad wouldn't tell people about that disastrous mission."

Jaden shook his head. "Dad didn't tell me, Marcus did."

My brow furrowed. "Marcus was here?"

"No, I was on Indupar. He invited our family to visit. I thought it would be nice for Jessa to see her cousin."

"Just for a visit?" I asked warily.

Jaden shrugged innocently. "Yeah, why?"

"Because I don't trust those seers. It seems like every time Marcus asks somebody to visit or go somewhere there's a reason.

"You're getting paranoid, little brother. We just visited and it was on my time schedule. It was an open invitation."

I sighed. "Okay."

"Why would he ask me to come there if it wasn't for a get together?"

"I don't know. Maybe if you weren't off planet you and the family would have had a speeder crash and all died."

My brother's eyes went wide. "Wouldn't he just tell me to stay inside that day?"

"I don't know? I'm not sure how the time stream works." I looked at him curiously. "How did the conversation get to me and my adventure on that Sith planet?"

"I think he was worried that you were mad at him. He asked me if you said anything. I told him no. Have you contacted him since the incident?"

I shook my head. "It's not something I want to discuss over the transceiver."

"Oh…well maybe when you are out for his coronation you can talk to him. You are going, aren't you?"

"Of course I am. Are you?"

"I wouldn't miss it. It is not often that a relative becomes a king…an Empress maybe or a Queen's consort…but rarely a King."

I chuckled. "It is going to be a major change for him and maybe for me and Zylie. We might be able to see him more often."

Jaden put an arm around my shoulder. "It's about time. You two need to bond."

"Yeah. Speaking of bonding. Let's go out for dinner. I'm buying."

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**_Entry 67_ **

I had a great time with my brother and his family. The next day Zylie and I went over to the Skywalker home to have dinner with Ben, Valla and my aunt and uncle. The twins and Hanna were out on missions so it was just the three couples. I always enjoy having dinner with my aunt and uncle…especially my aunt who is my former Master. I sometimes think I am closer to Aunt Mara than with my own mother. I am sure Ben feels the same way with my father.

"So, Talon," my aunt said while picking at her salad at the dinner table. "When are you and Zylie going to make your parents into grandparents?"

"They have Jessa…but I have been working at it diligently." I gave her a big poodoo eating grin that got me a slap on the shoulder from my wife.

"He needs to get a bigger StealthX cockpit," Ben said wryly. Zylie started coughing up her drink at that remark. Valla covered her face with her hand to hide a blush. I just stared at my cousin while gritting my teeth and imagining what a beating I wanted to give him right about now.

My Uncle Luke didn't look up from his plate. "Are you outgrowing your X-Wing already, Talon? Are we going to have to build some custom made fighters for you?"

My mouth drew into a tight line. I wasn't sure if my uncle was playing dumb or actually didn't notice the sarcastic edge in his son's voice. "No…Ben just thinks he's funny."

By now my aunt has figured out what must have happened. She turned away with a blush.

I glared at Ben. "We may need to remodel the 'fresher shower in the freighter. I think it might be too tight a fit for some people on the ship."

Now it was time for Ben to glower at me. We stared at each other in an awkward silence until my aunt broke the tension. "Stop it you two. I think everybody on this planet has tried to make out in a fighter cockpit or in a freighter 'fresher at one point in their life. Why Luke and I once…"

"Mara!" Uncle Luke said quickly. "Let's not bore the kids with stories of our youth."

Mara laughed before raising an eyebrow. "The story I was going to tell was anything but boring."

Ben blanched. "Please don't. I'm sorry for embarrassing Talon. It was uncalled for…just _please,_ mom, don't reminisce about your love life with dad while I'm at the dinner table."

Mara rolled her eyes. "I see somebody can dish it out but can't take the teasing himself." She turned back to me. "You can't tell me your parents haven't been pressuring you about children."

I shook my head. "No, not yet."

Mara stared at me for a long moment. "That's odd. Kira always struck me as a woman who wanted to be a grandmother…but then I guess I am mistaken since Mark and her left their granddaughter behind on Coruscant and moved to Indupar so he could train a stranger." She gazed at me intently. "I've never understood that move. Do you?"

I was getting very uncomfortable with this conversation. "Is there a reason you are bringing up this subject…", I turned to my uncle, "again?" I have no idea why my father's departure from the order and moving to Indupar upset my former Master and the Grand Master so much. They didn't get upset when Jacen left the order to be with Tenel Ka or Jaina departed to the Imperial Remnant to be with her husband.

"I might as well tell you the truth." Luke shifted in his chair uncomfortably. "I discovered your father is now on the Chief-of-State's watch list."

That statement shocked me. _What did my father do now?_ "Can I ask why?"

Luke shrugged. "I believe it has something to do with the Indupar monarchy annexing two more planets into its realm."

I let out a relieved breath. Chief-of-State Mokk Streke should have better things to worry about than a couple planets wanting to align themselves with the Indupar Crown Worlds. "First of all, the planets were not annexed. They petitioned the Royal House for citizenship in the Crown Worlds. Second, what does that have to do with my dad?"

Uncle Luke leaned back in his chair and took a sip of wine before answering. "Your father has been making multiple trips into Galactic Alliance territories over the last year. He's been arranging the purchase of Void Jumper suits, ships and weapon systems for the Indupar Crown Worlds." He put his glass down and scrutinized me, possibly looking for a reaction.

I looked back and forth between my uncle and aunt before throwing up my hands in confusion. "So? He works at the palace. He's a trained Void Jumper and Jedi. He's training the Force-strong Prince. He's a trusted servant of the monarchy there. Why shouldn't he be the person making these types of arrangements?" I shifted in my seat. "I'm sure everything is legal and on the up-and-up. If he wanted to smuggle stuff into Indupar he could easily do it. After all, he once worked for the galaxy's top smuggler turned legitimate businessman. I am fairly certain Talon Karrde could get my dad anything he wanted under the table. Streke is being his normal paranoid psychotic self." I took a couple of deep breaths to calm down. I was overreacting and that was suspicious itself. "Sorry…I'll tell my father he's being watched."

Luke nodded. "I wish he would tell me what the monarchy is doing with all that weaponry…and why he decided to live on Indupar."

I let loose a breath that was half frustration, half disbelief. I felt like I was being interrogated. "Whatever they'll doing, I know it doesn't involve you or the Jedi."

Luke pointed a finger at me. "That's where you're wrong. Rumor has it, the Chief-of-State believes your father is possibly working for me and using the Indupar Crown worlds to build a Force-strong army of Jedi Void jumpers."

Both Ben and I started cracking up. "What?" we said in unison.

"That is the craziest thing I have heard," I muttered with a roll of my eyes.

"Don't be dismissive when it comes to the Chief-of-State," Luke warned me. "Don't forget that holovid you acquired on Coronet City. Streke is working for someone who wants the Jedi off of Coruscant. He is looking for any reason to get us off planet. Do you recall what that mysterious man in the black stealth suit said? _'Send them all on a mission, a quest, anything! Just get them off planet'"_

"We know it's insane," my Aunt Mara said apologetically, "but if he believes we are conspiring against him, he might use that as an excuse to banish the Jedi."

"And to make matters worse you dad went off to Bastion to inspect the Imperial Knights. I'm sure that kicked Streke's paranoia up a notch."

"Jania is his niece. Everybody believes my father is Aunt Mara's brother. It shouldn't be odd that he visited family."

"I know, I know," Luke mumbled. "The trouble is I have a Chief-of-State who thinks we are plotting against him and I don't know enough about what is happening on Indupar and your father's activities to alleviate his fears. I can't ignore him. You have to remember a majority of the Order's funding comes from the Galactic Alliance."

"And you serve the Alliance," I pointed out.

"That _is_ true." Luke heaved a sigh. "I would like to be able to prove to the Chief-of-State that his concerns are unfounded. It would help if I had something to tell him. I think you can help me in this matter."

I bristled in irritation. "Are you asking me to spy on my father?"

"Talon," Mara said slowly. "That's not what we are asking. We were hoping you could simply ask your father what is going on."

I scoffed. "And if I discovered any information and you told Streke, why would he believe anything the Jedi tell him?"

Luke looked down at his plate, taking a thinking pause. "I just want to make the appearance that we are cooperating with him and to prove our loyalty to the Alliance."

"Why don't you ask my father yourself?"

Luke glanced over to Mara and I know some form of communication was going on between the two. Finally my uncle looked back to me. "We did ask and he refused to answer stating he was not at liberty to divulge any state secrets. If I told the Chief-of-State that Mark refused to tell us anything it will only pique his interest further. We thought Mark would talk to you." Luke gave me a pleading smile. "You're a Jedi. I was hoping you would take on this assignment from the Grand Master."

His words hit me like a blaster bolt to the heart. Was my uncle actually ordering me to interrogate my father? I looked over to Zylie and gave her a look that I knew she would interpret correctly. _We're out of here._

I stood and placed my napkin on the table. "Thank you for dinner Grand Master Skywalker." I turned to my aunt. "Master Skywalker…but I think it is time for us to go."

"Talon, please sit down," my uncle stood and put his hands out in a placating gesture. "I'm not ordering you to spy on your dad as much as the monarchy. I need information that will dissuade Streke's belief that the Jedi are in some sort of alliance with the Indupar government."

I gave a snort of disbelief. "I'm not going to spy on my…my father's employer. Nothing is happening on Indupar. They are not planning galactic domination."

"How do you know that?" my Aunt asked.

"Because I have spoken to the Prince a number of times. And if you recall, Ben and I know the Queen. We protected her shortly after her husband's death. We are friendly with the Indupar monarchy. The Prince has a fascination with everything my father does or did in the military and Jedi. My dad was a Void Jumper and now the prince wants to learn how to Void Jump. My dad was a Jedi and he wants to be a trained Knight for his kingdom. Nothing nefarious is happening out there on Indupar. My father would never be involved in any conspiracy against the Alliance." I could feel a muscle twitch above one eyebrow. "Has my father ever given you reason to doubt his loyalty?"

Luke's eyes closed momentarily. "In fact he did. He knew about the Galactic Alliance using the Galaxy Gun to kill an entire race of invading species. He was complicit in genocide. He was the only Jedi that knew about the attack and he hid it from me."

"Dad," Ben came to my father's defense. "Mark said our conventional weapons were useless against these…Vong creatures. The Galaxy Gun allowed the attack to remain hidden until the warheads exited hyperspace and by then it was too late for them to respond. A prolonged war could have cost trillions of lives."

"What?" I shook my head in confusion. "How come I never heard about this before? When did this happen?"

Ben blushed. " It happened when we were small boys. He told me when I was his apprentice. It wasn't something he was proud of."

"Well," I said to my cousin slowly. "Since you were his apprentice maybe you should be sent there to spy on my dad, because I'm not going to do it." I looked back to my aunt and uncle. "I'll ask him or the prince anything you want, but I _will_ tell them why I'm asking."

"That's all we can ask Talon," Mara said softly.

"Fine," I turned to Zylie. "Let's go."

"Talon, please don't be like this," Ben stood and followed me to the door.

I turned and put my hand on my cousin's shoulder and leaned in to whisper to him. "I'll ask my dad what's going on. Okay? But know this, I won't reveal any information that will put my son's life at risk."

Ben frowned at me. "Talon, you and I both know Indupar is not building an army to attack the Alliance."

I glared at him. "Think about the seers. If the seers saw Streke as a threat to the galaxy they would stop at nothing to remove the threat. You have seen how they work. I can't guarantee what Indupar is up to with their maneuverings."

Ben's face fell. "You're right."

"I'll see you back at the freighter." With that said Zylie and I left. I know I was a little short with my uncle and aunt, but anytime Indupar comes up in a conversation I get worried. I need to give my dad a call and tell him Mokk Streke is looking at him suspiciously.


	17. Chapter 17

Zylie and I took an air taxi back to the _Vazy Princess_. She kept glancing over to me with a look of disapproval. When we finally were in the privacy of our own ship she put her hands on her hips and glared at me. "I am assuming your uncle could feel your panic in the Force. I'm not a Force user but I could sense your apprehension. Your reaction to your aunt and uncle was over the top. If anything you made them more suspicious of the Indupar monarchy."

I shrugged. "He'll just think I am over protective of my parents, not the Prince."

"Why don't you just tell Luke and Mara that Marcus is your son?"

I let out a controlled breath. "Because I promised Ema I wouldn't tell anybody else. If she discovered I went back on my word she could make it difficult for me to see my son. It's not like I can go the Indupar court system and petition for joint custody. I am at the mercy of the Queen and Ema. I won't risk losing my relationship with my son. Uncle Luke and my Aunt Mara don't have a need to know."

She blew out a breath while staring at the ceiling in thought. Finally she shook her head and conceded my point. "You're probably right. What are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to get on my transceiver, activate the cryptic scrambler, and call my father." I moved to my cabin where I had a private transceiver set up.

She followed behind me. "Do you want privacy?"

"I'm not going to say anything you don't already know…but maybe you should leave just in case Dad wants to keep his answer as secret as possible."

"Understandable." Zylie left the room as I punched in the transmission code for my family's residence. After a short while my mother's smiling face appeared. "Talon, how are you? Are you at your brother's house?"

"We're on the freighter right now mom. Can I talk to dad? The Grand Master requests that I speak to him."

My mother's brow rose. "The Grand Master? That sounds serious." She turned and called out. "Mark! Your son needs to talk to you."

Within a few seconds my father's red bearded face filled up the screen. "Hey, Talon. What's going on?"

"I guess the seers didn't tell you I was going to call," I said somewhat sarcastically. "Uncle Luke said the Chief-of-State has you on a watch list."

My dad grinned brightly. "I'm flattered. What did I do to get the attention of such an esteemed leader?"

"According to Uncle Luke, Mokk Streke now believes you are building an army of Force strong Void Jumpers to attack the Alliance."

My dad made a big booming laugh. "Where does he get these delusions? We are making a Void Jumper Army, but they are not Force users…I can guarantee you that."

"And they aren't preparing to attack the Alliance?" I added.

My father gave me a strange look. "The army is strictly for the defense of Indupar. If the Chief-of-State is foolish enough to attack us we will respond." He paused. "He's not planning on attacking us, is he?"

I shook my head.

"Good! Then there's no problem. I wouldn't worry about Streke. He's harmless. He doesn't have the brains to make a decision on his own."

"That's just it. He is working for someone."

My father's smile faltered. "Really? How do you know?"

"CorSec planted a bug in a hotel room and caught Streke talking to some masked man. The conversation reveals he's been helped into power by some organization that is very anti-Jedi. He was ordered to get the Jedi off of Coruscant."

"Really," my father said slowly. "Do they have any idea who this masked man is? Is it a political leader, a crime lord, a revolutionary?"

"I don't know. The man was masked and was using a voice modulator. Streke doesn't even know who his benefactor is. He thinks he's a bounty hunter."

"A bounty hunter?" My father looked impressed. "Maybe it's the legendary Boba Fett. I heard he was seen on Mandalore last year."

I rolled my eyes. "I hate those gossip holozines and their Boba Fett sightings. He died on Tatooine, but people don't want to believe a famous bounty hunter is gone. It's like that rumor that Xizor, the leader of the Black Sun, had his head frozen and his brain is now living in a jar attached to a BT-16 Spider droid's belly in what was once Jabba's Palace."

"That one I do believe," my father said with a chuckle. "Listen, why don't I get Marcus to invite Chief-of-State Streke to Indupar for the coronation. That should ease some of his fears."

I thought about it before nodding. "That may work. Thanks dad." I cocked my head to the side and looked at him questioningly. "Dad, Luke said he had asked you about this situation and and you refused to give him answers. Why was that?"

His lips curved into a dangerous smile. "He didn't say please."

"I didn't say please either."

He let out a short laugh. "I didn't like how he asked me. He's no longer my Grand Master. He should have had Mara call me."

"So she could say, ' _Come on,_ '" I said with a laugh. It was a standing joke in my family that Aunt Mara could get my dad to do just about anything.

Dad grinned. "It works. It's such a convincing argument."

I stifled a smile. "Thanks dad. I'll let Uncle Luke know the Indupar monarchy will talk to Streke and get him off the Jedi's back."

"I'll make sure it happens." He closed his eyes and pulled in a deep breath. "You're mother is cooking my favorite meal and it smells ready." He opened his eyes and grinned. "Gotta go."

I turned off the transceiver and sat down on my bed. I hope this helps the situation, but then I thought of that rehearsal parade I watched a few months ago. There were tens of thousands of troops, armored speeders, ground-to-air lasers…I don't know if that's going to ease the Chief-of-State's fears or not.

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**_Entry 69_ **

The next day we went to visit Zylie's parents, Zara and Talon Karrde. As we entered their ship, Zara gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Talon did his normal slap on my back. "How's my namesake doing?"

"I'm doing great."

He gave me a hard look. "I hope you are taking good care of my little girl."

"I am." I turned and gave Zylie a wink. "And if I didn't I'm sure I would find a vornskr at my throat."

Zylie's eyes widened when I mentioned her pet. "Daddy, how is Princess?" She looked around her father's ship trying to locate the animal. Damn, I was hoping she would forget about the creature and we could take off without it. Ha!

"She's in the cargo hold. Chin's been taking care of her and Zorn." He motioned a hand toward the cargo bay. "Zorn is the name of my new pup."

"Oh, I want to see her." Zylie started walking down the hallway to the cargo area. Her dad caught up and slowed her down.

"Wait. Let me introduce you. Zorn is not fully trained yet."

I just about rolled my eyes. That is all I need is a half-trained vornskr to ruin my afternoon. I followed behind Zylie and her father. My mother-in-law fell in step next to me. "Princess is fine, Talon." She reassured me…like I was worried about the animal that threatens to bite my groin on a regular basis.

I gave Zara a fake smile. "I'm sure she's in good hands."

Karrde opened the cargo door and I could tell there was a problem. His eyes went wide as he screamed, "No Zorn!"

Now, I am not a fan of Princess, but there is no way in the world I want Zylie to witness her pet getting harmed. I ran to the cargo area fully expecting to see Princess getting mauled by a half trained vornskr. I pulled the lightsaber off my belt just in case I had to fight off the animal. What I found was worse than I imagined. Zorn and Princess were having sex!

Karrde hesitated for only a second before he ran and grabbed a water hose used to clean the cargo bay. He turned on the spigot and sprayed a stream of water at his lustful male vornskr. "Damn that Chin. I told him to make sure they were put in separate kennels!"

I put my lightsaber away knowing Zylie wouldn't approve of me using the weapon to separate the two.

Karrde kept spraying water on his overheated pet while swearing under his breath. I couldn't help but laugh. Damn, that Zorn looks like he's been without a female for some time. He was really going at it. Princess didn't appear too upset over the male's affections. Zylie on the other hand looked horrified. I imagine that's the look a parent would have if they walked in on their young daughter having sex with a heavily tattooed swoop gang member. She turned to me and said, "Do something Talon!"

I raised my hands in a gesture of bewilderment. "What can I do?"

"Pull them apart!"

"I don't think so." I shook my head. "Zorn will bite my arms off!"

"With the Force!" She threw her hands wide. "Now!"

"Okay, okay!" I reached out with the Force and tried to gently separate the two. This resulted in an ear-piercing screech from Princess. Either they were stuck or she didn't want to be pulled apart. I stopped and gave Zylie a sheepish expression. "I'm afraid of hurting them. Why don't we just let them finish?" I pointed to the door. "Maybe we should give these two lovers some privacy."

Zylie glowered at me. "Princess is not spayed." She looked to her father. "Is Zorn neutered?"

Karrde was still spraying water on the animals that appeared oblivious to his efforts. "Does it look like he's neutered? No, I was going to breed him."

I was going to make a joke about him getting his wish, but then I realized…I was probably going to have a pregnant vornskr when I departed Coruscant. "Stang!" I was ready to make a second attempt to pry them apart with the Force when both animals let out a deep gravely howl. Zorn dismounted, shook the water off his coarse fur before flopping down in a corner of the cargo hold to nap. I don't blame him. Those were some impressive moves!

Karrde shut off the faucet and dropped the hose on the deck. "Damn that Chin!"

Zylie ran up to Princess and threw her arms around the animal's neck, giving her a hug. Our Vornskr didn't look upset…in fact she looked more chipper than I have seen her in months. She looked up to me panting, her tongue lolling out of her mouth. I swear that vornskr was smirking at me.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, Zylie," Her father said as he knelt down next to his daughter. "What are the chances that she conceived after one breeding experience?"

I suppressed a groan. With my luck there was a one hundred percent chance. "Maybe we should leave Princess here with you," I offered. "You have more experience with vornskrs than we do." Zylie gave me a deadly look. "Just in case she's pregnant," I explained.

She stood and glared at me. "I've been around vornskrs all my life. I can handle this, Talon."

I sighed while giving her a forced smile. "Yes Dear."

Karrde laughed as he guided Princess into her cage and locked it. "It'll be alright, Talon. If she's pregnant I'll take the litter off your hands. I have buyers lined up for the animals."

"Thanks." I turned back to Zylie and gave her a sickly-sweet smile. "I guess that means I only have to deal with a moody pregnant female for the next few months."

Karrde laughed as ushered us out of the cargo hold. "That reminds me…when are you going to make me a grandfather."

ARRGGHHHH!

.

.

**_Entry 70_ **

We left Coruscant a day later. Things were somewhat awkward between Ben and me during ship prep and take off. I'm embarrassed for getting mad at his father. Uncle Luke was just concerned about my dad and the Jedi Order. I simply panicked when it came to Mokk Streke and the Jedi wanting to get into Indupar business. If Uncle Luke got near Marcus there would be no way to hide the fact that the boy is my son. His Force signature would be recognizable to the Grand Master.

I gave Ben a sideward glance from where I sat in the pilot seat. "Is your dad mad at me?"

"No, he's worried that he offended you."

I let out a relieved breath. "No, I was just worried about Marcus."

Ben turned to look at me. "I know, but you can't get all upset. My parents won't understand your reaction."

"True." I sat silently for a moment. "Dad is going to have the Queen invite the Chief-of-State to the Coronation and give him a tour."

"That should help."

"Maybe."My eyes narrowed as I gave him a mock glare. "What I do know is I should give you a beat down for bringing up the cockpit incident while we were having dinner."

Ben chuckled. "Sorry, but you embarrassed me also. How did you know Valla and I were showering together?"

I scoffed. "Please, I could hear you two. _'Oh Ben! Benny! Oh, oh, oh!'_ "

He punched me on the shoulder. "You shouldn't be eavesdropping. Were you trying to gather intelligence on how to satisfy a woman?"

I scoffed. "Yeah, like I would look to you for that! I am the far more experienced lover."

"You better not say that out loud."

"I don't mean after Zylie and I hooked up! But I did have my share of the ladies prior and she knows that."

"I know she knows. That's not why I warned you not to say it out loud." He threw a thumb toward ID10T. "It's just whatever is said in front of Ten-Tee has a way of getting around."

I turned and glared at the droid. "Maybe we should give him a memory wipe."

ID10T's head swiveled toward me. "Sir, I assure you anything you or Master Skywalker have said in front of me in the last five minutes have been permanently erased as of….now."

"It better be!"

"Better be what sir?" The droid said confused.

"That's right. You better forget."

"Forget what sir?"

"Forget that Ben and Valla had sex in the freighter 'fresher."

"I wasn't aware that was the case. Shall I further disinfect the room?"

"Yes, please."

Ben punched me on the shoulder again. "You're a jerk!" He turned to the droid. "Zylie and Talon tried to have sex in the StealthX and failed."

"I was quite aware of that situation. Mistress Valla and Zylie were laughing about that embarrassing predicament one night while on piloting duties."

I pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and finger while shaking my head. I really need to memory wipe that droid.

.

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**_Entry 71_ **

I haven't had much time to write lately. Since we all are going to Marcus' coronation we had to double up on our trading schedule to fulfill our deliveries. When we get to Indupar we will spend a week with my parents and hopefully have some time with my son. The coronation occurs on my son's twelfth birthday. I have no idea what to get him for either occasion. After all, he has everything. I thought I might give him an ancestry chart of my side of the family. I guess it is mostly my mother's ancestry. Grandma and Grandpa Starkos, my uncles and their families are the only extended family I've ever known. Dad's family history started when he was pulled out of a cloning cylinder on Wayland.

I guess I could research Luke's background since my dad is his altered clone…but from what Ben has told me there isn't much to tell. Darth Vader, also known as Anakin Skywalker, was Luke's father. Senator Padme Amidala was his mother. Ben said his grandfather started out as a slave on Tatooine. Anakin's mother was named Shmi, but other than that there is little known about his background. I supposed I could do background research on Padme. I was told she once was an elected Queen of Naboo. So that means my son's great grandmother was a Queen…so in a way he comes from royalty even if he is a usurper to the Indupar throne.

I really hope that once Marcus is crowned, I can spend more time with him.


	18. Chapter 18

**_Entry 72_ **

We are on Indupar and today is the big day. Within an hour my son will be crowned King of the Indupar Crown Worlds. My brother and his family are here and staying with my parents. Ben and Valla were assigned luxurious rooms adjacent to Zylie and my quarters. We haven't seen Marcus since we arrived on planet, but that is to be expected. According to my father he is surrounded by handlers who are ensuring every button is polished and every seam highly creased. Ben and I wore our full Jedi robes with lightsabers. My father showed up to the coronation in a uniform that suspiciously looks like a dark blue version of the Imperial Knight uniform. He has a black body suit covered with dark blue armor with gold trim and topped off with a black cape. HA! I think he is starting to like capes (either that or my mother is starting to like him in capes. Ha!). He is wearing his lightsaber and what looks like a ceremonial gold plated blaster.

The ladies in our group were wearing formal gowns provided to us by the Queen's wardrobe department. Valla and Zylie look beautiful. When my mother showed up to stand near my father I was taken aback by her beauty. She is getting up there in the years but despite the gray in her hair and laugh lines around her eyes she is still stunning. My father looked at her with such a smitten expression on his face that I actually laughed. Dad still has it bad for my mom.

"They are so cute together," Zylie whispered to me. "I hope we end up just like them."

"What? With me wearing ceremonial armor and an outlandish cape?"

She poked me with her elbow. "No, I mean how they're so much in love."

I gave her my best sexy grin. "In that case, we're already like them."

We were ushered out to a huge balcony overlooking the parade field and into a dignitary standing area. In the middle of the large terrace was the royal throne sitting on a gold and granite base. It was an ornate chair with a high back, plush red upholstery, claw and ball feet, and wide wood and gold trimmed arm supports. There were probably two dozen people on the balcony with us. Most were in uniforms with an exorbitant amount of ribbons and medals. On the other side of the balcony from where I stood I saw two fur covered creatures that I recognized as H'drachi Seers. They were shorter than humans with brown hair and cameloid looking faces. Both wore bright, garish clothing topped off with bright blue turbans. One appeared to be very old. The other seer was younger and hovered close to his colleague. I assume the older alien was the Head Seer and the younger was his aide. I guess I stared at them a little too long because they both glanced up at me. My stomach clenched nervously as they stared me down. Gods! Those guys give me the creeps. I can just imagine them consulting the time steam and seeing my highest highs and lowest lows. I don't like them at all.

Next to the seers was another person I didn't have much use for—Chief-of-State Mokk Streke. He was in some sort of ceremonial garb. It was a cross between a uniform and a business suit. He was standing there looking smug. I noticed the seers glanced over to him and then smirked. What the kriff was that about? They actually looked amused. Maybe they foresaw Streke getting hit by a speeder bus. One can only hope.

I jumped when a loud explosion was heard in the courtyard below. I relaxed when I realized it was a ceremonial cannon marking the start of the ceremony. There was a hush among the crowd as my son came out from behind the throne, walked up the steps and stood at attention before the seat of power. The Queen followed and positioned herself to his side.

Marcus was dressed in a dark blue military uniform with gilded tasseled epaulets and golden piping down the side of the trousers. He had a very serious look on his face as he raised a hand and then dropped it signaling the start of the ceremony. Parade music blared from the military marching band in the courtyard below. I glanced down and was shocked by the display of military might. There had to be at least fifty thousand troops standing in formation. My stomach sunk as I realized if they did a pass-in-review it would take hours to complete. Fortunately it didn't look like they were going to march at this point. Behind the troopers were hundreds of heavy artillery platforms hovering just above the ground, vehicle-mounted blaster cannons, armored personal carriers and ground attack vehicles. A sonic boom sounded as an attack wing of star fighters few over the parade ground in a 'V' formation. I glanced over to the Chief-of-State who looked a little spooked by the demonstration of power. Ha! I somehow don't think this visit is going to give Streke any warm fuzzy feelings about the Indupar monarchy.

The music and flybys continued for another half hour before the ceremonial cannon went off again. I was a little disappointed not to see the Indupar version of Void Jumpers. I was told my father ordered a thousand armored jet pack suits. Perhaps the soldiers haven't been properly trained yet.

My son sat down on the throne and waited silently. After a few minutes an old human male in white robes and a fancy hat came out carrying a very large crown. He started speaking in some language other than basic. I assume this is a leader of the local religious group that my son is expected to be part of. I politely listened to the man drone on in the unknown language for about fifteen minutes. He then slowly moved up the steps until he stood in front of Marcus. He muttered some more gibberish before slowly lowering the crown onto my son's head. He then bowed to Marcus and moved down the stairs.

A man if full military regalia came to a microphone set up at the edge of the balcony. "Exalted and noble guests, I present unto you Marcus Odaj Indupar, your absolute King and guardian of the Indupar Crown Worlds." He turned to my son. "King Marcus, do you solemnly swear to govern your people with justice and mercy?"

"I will."

"Will you preserve and defend the laws of the land and respect the rights of the citizens over which you rule?"

"I will."

The officer abruptly turned and raised a hand in a closed-fist salute. "Long live, King Marcus!" There was an exuberant outburst from the soldiers and civilians in the courtyard as a deafening cannon salute rang out.

After that I was escorted from the balcony and I followed my mom and dad back to their quarters. I kept looking for Marcus, but he was nowhere to be seen. Once my family was behind closed doors my dad gave out a loud sigh of relief. "Finally, it's over."

I grinned. "When will we see the new King?"

My dad gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "Don't expect to see him for a while. He's in meetings with world leaders, including the Chief-of-State of the Galactic Alliance. I'll be surprised if we see him before tomorrow, but I'm sure he will sneak off as soon as possible. The visiting elite can't expect the boy to stay up all day and night." My father gestured toward the living room. "Sit down. I'll get you something to drink."

Jaden, Jysella and Jessa claimed my parents' sectional while Ben and Valla sat down on a couch next to my mother. Zylie and I pulled up some chairs from the dining area.

Ben turned to my dad who was in the kitchen. "Does this mean Talon can be more open when it comes to visiting Marcus."

My dad nodded. "I don't expect that Marcus' true paternity will ever be officially revealed, but at least there is little chance of him being ousted if the charade is uncovered."

"I just want to be able to see my son more often." My shoulders slumped as I realized Marcus probably would never ever travel with me again on the _Vazy Princess_. I'm glad he stowawayed when he did. I looked over to my father who was pulling sodas out of the kitchen refrigeration unit. "Dad, why weren't the Indupar Void Jumpers at the parade?"

My father's posture stiffened slightly. "Unfortunately, we don't have any certified jump troopers at this time."

A grin crossed my face. "Maybe I can help you train them. I will take some time off from Jedi business and come to Indupar to help out."

He walked out to the living area and handed out the drinks. "The training is not going to happen on planet, so if you expect to use it as an excuse to visit your son, it won't work."

My smile slipped from my face. "Where's the training going to happen?"

My father sat down next to my mother and gave a shrug. "We are going to contract out the training to an established jump trooper school."

"Oh." That made sense, but I was a bit disappointed.

My mother smiled at me. "You can always come to Indupar and train Marcus."

I looked over to Zylie, then Ben and Valla. The two women looked anxious to hear my response. I know the sisters are close and would miss each other terribly if separated. "I will have to discuss that with Zylie."

We talked for a few hours, catching up on what was going on in the family. Jysella had to cover little Jessa's ears when I started my Princess/Zorn love story. I apologized and promised to tell the adults the unrated story at a later date. We called it a night and retired to our separate rooms.

.

.

**_Entry 73_ **

Late at night I heard a soft rap at my door. I got out of bed and pulled on a bathrobe. I found Marcus standing outside the front entrance. He didn't ask to enter, but quickly pushed past me. "Close the door."

I complied and ushered him to the suites sitting area separate from the bedchambers. "What's wrong?"

He grinned. "Nothings wrong. I just needed to ditch my escorts for a while. They get annoying."

I motioned him to sit. "Do you want anything to drink?"

He shook his head. "I just want to relax, if that's okay."

I sat down next to my son. "It's your palace, Your Royal Highness, King Marcus."

He rolled his eyes at my formality. "Stop it. I've heard more than my fair share fake venerations today. " His face took on a look of disgust. "Some of these world leaders are soooo annoying. On the surface they are acting all proper but I can tell they don't respect me as a leader. To them I'm just a boy. They patronize me most of the time. Not blatantly enough to cause a political affront…but I can sense it through the Force! I'm already tired of the title and job."

I gave him a warm smile. "I guess I am going to have to thoroughly scan the _Vazy Princess_ for stowaways before I leave."

Marcus chuckled. "Probably." He gave me a quick glance before looking down at his boots. "I never found out if you were mad about what happened on Upekzar. You know, monitoring the time stream and sending grandpa out to help you and Ben."

I shrugged. "No…as long as you are giving me and Zylie privacy."

Marcus made a face. "Yuck. Don't go there, Dad."

I had to chuckle. "I'm glad you are looking out for me. If you ever foresee me being eaten by a large creature…please don't hesitate to intervene." I reached out and pulled him into a hug.

When we parted I noticed him chewing on his bottom lip nervously. "So…now that I'm King things can be different."

There was a long silence between us before I spoke. "I know you want me to stay…and I would like to."

"But…"

"But I have obligations to the Jedi and to Karrde's trade organization."

He smiled broadly. "I think I found a solution for that. I can make some very lucrative deals with Talon Karrde. Having continuous and copious shipments to Indupar will keep you coming back."

I grinned. "I like that idea."

"And meanwhile you said you might settle down if Zylie has a baby." He hesitated for a moment. "How's that going?"

I scoffed at his audacity. "It's going great. Not that it's any of your business." I reached over and tussled his hair. I then thought maybe that was no longer appropriate to do to a King. I was relieved when he just laughed good-naturedly. "Be patient, Marcus. I want some time with Zylie as a couple first."

He gave an understanding nod. "Okay."

I picked up the remote and turned on the holonet. "Do you want to watch a vid or do you want to do a hologame?"

"A hologame. Let's play Sith vs. Jedi…you can be the Jedi." He grinned at me as he set up the holoprojector for hand movement controls. I stood next to him, arms out to my side as the gaming machine located our hands. I moved experimentally making sure the character projection followed my body movements. I reached down to my bathrobe belt and the character followed my actions, extending his hand and grasping his lightsaber. I then stood there with the unactivated lightsaber looking like an idiot while Marcus' character—a huge and dangerous looking Zabrak Sith Lord—approached me with a red crossguard lightsaber. "How do I turn on my lightsaber?"

Marcus laughed. "Just flick your wrist."

I did so and a blue blade extended from the hilt. Marcus turned to me and gave me a deadly grin. "Ready dad?"

I rolled my eyes. "I was born ready."

Forty seconds later my character was missing his head and Marcus was doing his _'I won!'_ dance. Zylie heard the commotion and came outside in her pajamas and bathrobe. She reset my characters and took over for me. Thirty second later she thoroughly trounced my son at his own game. Ha! All that time she spent with Information Technology geeks in college paid off.

Marcus stayed for another hour before he said the royal guards would have a conniption if they noticed him gone from his room. I gave him a tight hug. He then turned to Zylie who kissed him on the cheek making him blush.

"I'll come back to Indupar as often as I can," I told him.

"I know." He gave me another hug before he snuck out of our quarters.

I put an arm around Zylie's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "They grow up so fast. He is no longer the eleven-year-old boy that stowed away on my ship; he's now King of multiple worlds."

She reached around my waist and pulled me closer. "And you are still his father."

"Yeah," I said softly. I sometimes wish I was a normal guy with a normal life and a normal family…but that was not to be. I am Talon Marcus Tantiss, son of Mark Tantiss, altered clone of Luke Skywalker and retired Jedi Master. I am father to Marcus Odaj Indupar, King of the Indupar Crown Worlds. I am married to Zylie Karrde Tantiss, daughter of Talon Karrde, the man who killed the Emperor Reborn. My entire family consists of Jedi, former smugglers, Royalty and warriors.

A wide smile crossed my face as I realized I wouldn't have it any other way.

I leaned down and kissed Zylie softly. "I can't wait to see what the future holds."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of this year's journal. I will continue this story in the fanfic: The Journal of Talon Tantiss: Jedi Knight and Reluctant Vornskr Owner


End file.
